Live Winter 2026 - Web

LIVE rounds off 2026 with a bold new look and a celebration of the year’s biggest festival productions. From our Festival Edit, featuring Montreux Jazz Festival, Coachella and Electric Forest, to a look ahead at sustainable touring, futuristic nightclubs and the venues of tomorrow, this issue explores the creativity and technology shaping live experiences. We also go behind the scenes of tours by Dermot Kennedy and Brian Cox.

LIVE magazine Winter 2026

A landmark Meyer and Montreux Jazz Festival partnership leads our celebration of 2026’s festival AV excellence REACHING NEW HEIGHTS

Out of this world Brian Cox’s tour takes us beyond Earth

The low-carbon show Putting sustainability centre stage

Venues of the future Where will live experiences go next?

Bringing AV to Life

EDITORIAL Editor Verity Butler +44 (0) 1223 492246 veritybutler@bright.uk.com

Editorial director Nicola Foley Features writer Oliver Webb Chief sub editor Matthew Winney Sub editors Zanna Buckland & Chris Young Contributor Emma Davidson

ADVERTISING Sales director Sam Scott-Smith +44 (0) 7875 711967 samscott-smith@bright.uk.com

DESIGN Design director Andy Jennings Magazine design manager Lucy Jeffery Graphic designer Hedzlynn Kamaruzzaman Junior designer and ad production Holly May PUBLISHING Managing director Andy Brogden Operations director Saffron Osborn-Clay Subscriptions manager Laura Meikle PPC & social manager Keith Murtagh

Going out with a bang!

MEDIA PARTNERS

We may be looking back with the Festival Edit , however this issue also seeks to look firmly ahead. Our ‘future’ theme investigates what a sustainable tour might actually look like next year on page 38, while we put on our dancing shoes for our futuristic nightclubs special on page 48. Also, this issue’s round table panel comes together to break down what venues of all different shapes and sizes might look like in times ahead. We also go behind the mystical scenes of Dermot Kennedy’s The Weight of the Woods tour, which demonstrates how AV tools can be cleverly used to make vulnerable and intimate genres adapt to vast arenas. Our other touring feature ditches the forest for the universe, where we uncover the technical secrets to Brian Cox’s recent world tour. I wanted to conclude by thanking everyone for supporting LIVE for another year – whether you’re a reader, advertiser or one of our amazing team that helps make it happen. We can’t wait to meet up with this wonderful industry again at ISE – and see what the new year has in store!

elcome to LIVE ’s final issue of 2026 – where you may have already noticed that we’ve decided to see

the year out in style. In a bid to get ahead of the ‘new year, new me’ rigmarole in January, the team at LIVE HQ have been hard at work behind the scenes to give us a fresh lick of paint ahead of 2027. From a bold new logo on the outside to a completely different look and feel on the inside, we’ve been so excited to share this next chapter of the magazine with you. And, what with woolly-scarf-and-warm-coat season now in full flow, we thought we’d torture ourselves and our readers by reflecting on what has been a simply sensational summer of sound. With music festivals around the world constantly thinking outside the ‘tent’ to push the boundaries of live production, we are delighted to share with you LIVE ’s Festival Edit 2026 . Our cover story delves into a special anniversary edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival, while we also spotlight Coachella, CLOUT Festival, Electric Forest and plenty more besides! Be sure to check it out from page 8.

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Verity Butler Editor veritybutler@bright.uk.com

WINTER 2026 FESTIVAL EDIT 2026 08 MONTREUX JAZZ FESTIVAL Geneva – in a special year for the iconic festival 16 FESTIVAL CASE STUDIES to us from around the world this year CONCERTS & TOURING 44 BRIAN COX: EMERGENCE TOUR Professor Brian Cox’s latest world tour explores a new galaxy. Delve into the spectacle’s AV 54 DERMOT KENNEDY X STADIUMS Discover how one of the more intimate music genres can be cleverly adapted to larger venues THEATRE & STAGE 32 SOUNDING OUT THE ORESTEIA This striking adaptation offers an unusual acoustic challenge: a revolving glass house set Our coverage from the idyllic shores of Lake We spotlight an array of events that stood out ATTRACTIONS & EXPERIENCES 52 HOLD YOUR BREATH! Grab your snorkels – we’re heading below the surface with Sub Sea Systems’ Aquaticar experience SPONSORED CONTENT 30 FUJIFILM AT THE HAY FESTIVAL This one is for the bookworms, as we reveal the production secrets of this year’s Hay Festival 36 A DECADE OF UNIVERSAL PIXELS Universal Pixels celebrates its tenth birthday. Its tech partners reflect on what makes it tick 58 HIVE LOOKS AHEAD We linked up with HIVE at IAAPA to find out what’s next after the company’s monumental year PRO AV PULSE 60 IN THE MIX This issue’s industry news section spotlights A$AP Rocky’s tour, Obama’s new centre and more! 64 INTERVIEW: SARAH JOYCE AVIXA’s chief global officer met up with LIVE at InfoComm India to talk future thoughts on APAC 71 PUT TO THE TEST The oXyFire Media team try out the Atomos A-Eye PTZ Controller Pro in a corporate setting

Step into tomorrow, as this issue explores the technologies, trends and ideas shaping the future 42 REMARKABLE RETAIL Shopping has never been more

futuristic – as we found out with the latest installation at DT51 Xi’An mall

This issue’s cover was designed by Hedzlynn Kamaruzzaman at Bright Publishing

Image by MJF Emilien Itim

FUTURE PLAYING FOR THE PLANET

38 48

In an ever carbon-chomping industry, we explore some genuinely green solutions

DISCOS IN A NEW DIMENSION Revealing the clubbing experiences that have changed dancing forever

66 72

ROUND TABLE: VENUES

Venues of all sizes are central to this industry. Experts discuss their future

ISE 2O27: WHAT’S NEXT? With ISE approaching fast, we highlight the biggest trends hitting AV next year

FESTIVAL

EDIT

2026

Meyer and Montreux A partnership for the decades

Return of the desert Light design takes on Coachella dust

Iconic sound Tomorrowland’s sonic secrets

Woodland wonders Behind the scenes of Electric Forest

As Montreux celebrates its ruby anniversary, Meyer Sound’s Andy Davies shares the secret sauce to its iconic sound

Words Verity Butler

here are your bog-standard anniversaries, and then there are those anniversaries that offer an opportunity to look at an entire industry through the lens of a single relationship. In 2026, the Montreux Jazz Festival celebrated one such occasion, for its 60th edition – while simultaneously Meyer Sound also marked 40 its capacity, and so it’s always been very restricted on whether you can fly subs in there. You simply can’t; there isn’t the weight capacity,” Davies says. “Having something like TIGRA as a step up from the older PA that was in there really added more low end to the array, added more control to the room, and you could really hear the difference with the latest generation of product, particularly at the back of the room. It added more weight.” T BIG years as its Global Official Sound Partner. The Montreux of 2026 is worlds apart from its original 1967 set-up of an intimate jazz gathering. Though its history is inseparable from its setting on the idyllic shores of Lake Geneva, its reputation has shifted from one genre to a mosaic of music styles and artistry. Under founder Claude Nobs, across its 40 year tenure, the festival developed drastically into said mosaic. Jazz remains central to its heritage, but the programme now encompasses an expansive spectrum of styles – from rock and soul to electronic music and contemporary pop. From the likes of ‘it girl’ of 2026 Zara Larsson to iconic hip-hop band The Roots, its stages have hosted established icons and emerging artists alike. “Our relationship with Montreux goes back 40 editions now, and we’ve always used it as a springboard for bringing the latest and greatest,” introduces Andy Davies, senior director of product management at Meyer Sound. “A key part of the original relationship with John and Helen Meyer and Claude Nobs back in the day was not just elevating the festival but also elevating what was possible in the whole industry.” To begin with, the festival was a single-venue event held in a casino. Now it encompasses a sprawling lakeside programme, with numerous official stages, clubs, bars, hospitality spaces and activations. This year’s festival welcomed more than 250,000 concertgoers between 3 and 18 July, with more than 700 performances and events spanning the turquoise waterfront. The newly refurbished Montreux Music & Convention Centre provided the setting for the festival’s flagship venues: the 4000-capacity Auditorium Stravinski and the 2000-capacity Montreux Jazz Lab. Across the site, more than 700 Meyer Sound loudspeakers served 12 official stages and additional spaces, with Swiss rental company Skynight supplying and integrating the systems. “It’s always been a case of bringing the greatest that we could to make the festival as good as it could possibly be,” Davies explains. “For us, that’s always new systems, new software, new ways of doing things.” DIFFERENT SHAPES AND SIZES This year’s most significant technological introduction was TIGRA, Meyer Sound’s new line array, making its Montreux debut following its global festival premiere at Roskilde earlier in the summer. At the Jazz Lab, TIGRA represented a particularly meaningful step forward. “The Jazz Lab is quite a low room for

DRAW The festival attracted more then 250,000 fans and featured more than 700 shows, including one by Lewis Capaldi

easier time. It makes calibration a lot faster and a lot simpler.” Alongside the new loudspeakers, the festival saw a wider deployment of Milan network technology and expanded use of Nebra, Meyer Sound’s control, monitoring and connectivity software. Multiple venues could be monitored from a central location, bringing greater oversight to a complex site operating across a variety of spaces. SYSTEMS IN SYNC If TIGRA represented the festival’s most significant new loudspeaker deployment, the opening-night performance by British singer Raye demonstrated what happens when the demands of a major production push system design beyond conventional boundaries. Montreux has a long tradition of setting aside space for exceptional performances: tribute concerts, special guest appearances and evenings built around productions that could not simply be replicated elsewhere. This year, Raye’s performance in the Auditorium Stravinski became one of those defining occasions. The venue is a conventional theatre, with a stage, balcony and fixed seating, but the production transformed it into a space configured entirely around the audience. A custom rotating stage was positioned centrally, with the performance taking place in the round and spectators surrounding the musicians through 360°. The production featured a 22-piece ensemble, while surprise appearances from Mark Ronson and Alicia Keys only added to the occasion. A bespoke design built around PANTHER-M was required, with TIGRA also used as fills alongside LEOPARD, LINA and ULTRA-X80 loudspeakers, as well as 2100-LFC and 900- LFC low-frequency control elements. “Having TIGRA and PANTHER working together was incredibly useful because they’re so similar sonically,” Davies expands. The front-of-house engineer was primarily mixing on TIGRA, with the system handing over to PANTHER as listeners moved around the room and then to ULTRA-X80 loudspeakers towards the back. “Just being able to walk around and hear instantly how seamless it is gives you confidence that what the audience are hearing on the floor and what they are hearing up in the balcony is all hanging together sonically.” The logistical demands were equally intense – involving a 36-hour load-in, with multiple crews working in shifts, which preceded the show. By the following morning, the venue had been completely reconfigured for the festival’s regular programme. “It was a great night,” Davies enthuses. “Musically, they absolutely pulled it out of the bag. They had some great guests. The tributes that were made to Montreux through the years were really cleverly done – and were incredibly beautiful.” Some people know Meyer Sound is part of the sound of the festival and they’re really proud of it. That speaks to how there is this shared passion

line arrays to compact systems and point- source loudspeakers. “One of the fun things about Montreux is the sheer variety of stages. The smallest Meyer Sound systems that are deployed there are our smallest loudspeakers, and the biggest systems are our biggest loudspeakers. It’s a little bit of everything from almost the entire product range because there are so many different sizes.” Meyer Sound pays close attention to the relationship between products. The result, Davies describes, is a family of systems designed to work together without requiring extensive corrective tuning. “We’re not trying to give each of these distinct products their own sonic signature,” he explains. “We pay a lot of attention. It’s not just about frequency response; it’s about phase response and about the dynamic response of different systems.” At Montreux, TIGRA could be used alongside PANTHER and other loudspeakers, allowing engineers to move between different coverage zones without encountering an obvious change in character. “Because all of those are of a newer generation, we didn’t need to use those integration tools for this event. They already work together incredibly well straight out of the box and that gives people tuning it a much

Crucially, the improvement helped bring the Lab closer to the sonic experience of the much larger Auditorium Stravinski, where Meyer Sound’s PANTHER line arrays provided the main system. “It really did close the gap sonically between that venue and how the larger Stravinski sounds, which is on PANTHER,” Davies emphasises. The deployment also demonstrated the importance of ensuring different products work together as a coherent system. Montreux’s variety of performance spaces means that no single loudspeaker can serve every application. Instead, the festival draws on a broad cross-section of Meyer Sound’s portfolio, from large format

GREAT ESCAPE Raye (above) and Samson Philipps (below) were two of the highlights from the 2026 outing of the celebrated festival

in an industry where equipment, production methods and audience expectations continue to change. The introduction of TIGRA, the expanded use of Milan networking and Nebra monitoring and the challenges of the Raye production all demonstrate a partnership that continues to find new opportunities to develop. The anniversary also reinforces the importance of continuity. Experienced engineers share their knowledge with younger professionals, new products are tested in demanding real-world conditions and the lessons learned on the festival’s stages can inform future developments. “Ultimately, at its heart, the festival is still passionate about the sound of Montreux,” Davies concludes. “Some people who know the festival well know that Meyer Sound is part of the sound of the festival, and they’re really proud of it. That just speaks to how long we’ve been involved, but also how much there is this shared passion. That’s what makes it work.”

BUILT ON TRUST Montreux carries a particular weight for artists and engineers. Its history, reputation and audience expectations create an atmosphere in which performances can feel especially significant. Meyer Sound’s role is to provide the reliability that allows artists and engineers to concentrate on the music rather than worry about the system. “The trust that the front-of-house engineers have in us is really important,” Davies adds. “Montreux is legendary and it means a lot to the artists. That translates into more pressure on the engineers because everyone feels the history of Montreux and they want to know that they’re going to have a great night.” He continues: “When it becomes something that’s special and unusual and different and wacky and imaginative all at the same time, it adds pressure on everyone. Being able to just ease that pressure and say ‘you do your thing, we’ve got this’ is part of our ethos about Montreux and always has been.” Montreux’s evolution is not limited to its headline stages. Over the past decade, the festival has expanded its club venues and electronic music programming, broadening the range of experiences available to audiences. The return to the indoor convention centre this year also created a new electronic music space, attracting a higher calibre of DJs than the festival had previously hosted. One of the most revealing examples is La Bibliothèque, a library and vinyl-listening room equipped with Meyer Sound’s Bluehorn high-end monitoring system and a NAGRA hi-fi set-up. The unique area of the festival offers guided listening sessions that place the music itself at the centre of the experience. “Where else has a library at its festival?” Davies laughs. The programme’s unpredictability is also a massive part of Montreux’s appeal. Davies points to the return of Ezra Collective, who stepped in at extremely short notice to perform in the Stravinski, after not originally being scheduled. “It was utterly stunning,” he says. “That’s the thing about Montreux. You get really amazing performances where you get a more intimate view of some artists who wouldn’t normally be there, but also other artists who completely surprise you, who you’ve never heard of. You get these one-offs like the Raye special. It’s still the ethos that makes it very special.” As the festival expands internationally, Meyer Sound’s involvement is extending beyond Switzerland. The partnership has supported editions in Shanghai and Miami, with further expansion planned into markets including South Africa and the Middle East. Maintaining the sound associated with Montreux across these new locations is an important part of that growth. “It does mean that we help represent the Montreux brand, and it’s exciting to see that expand and reach into other markets.” LOOKING TO THE NEXT 40 Four decades is a remarkable length of time for any technical partnership, particularly Being able to say, ‘you do your thing, we’ve got this’ is part of our ethos about Montreux and always has been

SHOUT OUT Over 700 Meyer loudspeakers served 12 stages and additional spaces, hosting artists such as Marie Jay (right) and Liniker (below)

TOMORROWLAND DATES 17–19 July 2026 (weekend 1) and 24–26 July 2026 (weekend 2) LOCATION De Schorre recreation park, Boom, Belgium

Different stages have different dimensions, audience capacities and acoustic requirements, making a single, standardised set-up unsuitable for the entire site. Across the festival, L-Acoustics systems powered multiple stages, including an L2 deployment in 6.1 at Atmosphere, four K1 arrays at Freedom, an A15 at Melodia and a dV-DOSC system in the Sola Vida Lounge. Among the festival’s many innovative creations was the Floating Sky above the Freedom Stage. The installation transformed the space above the audience into an active part of the show experience and combined motion, lighting and video into a constantly evolving spectacle. Comprising 420 winches, the kinetic structure could move different elements in synchronisation, creating a series of changing patterns overhead. Coordinating such a large moving installation requires careful integration between mechanical systems, control equipment, lighting and video. Every movement must fit within the intended sequence while remaining coordinated with the wider show. To bring the visuals to life, Xine Robotics partnered with FACE, Luminex’s Belgian distributor, and selected Luminex technology as the foundation for the network infrastructure powering the installation. The scale of the Floating Sky also placed significant demands on its network infrastructure. Luminex technology, including GigaCore network switches, LumiNode processors and LumiCore devices, supported communication and monitoring across the installation. Lighting the show proved to be challenging, with minimal time between different artists taking to the stages. This meant ensuring smooth changeovers within very limited windows. Luminex technology helped enable this and played a key role in the show. Huge sets were delivered by some of the headliners, including David Guetta’s main-stage set, which lasted for an hour and 12 minutes. With each edition introducing a new creative theme, Tomorrowland continues to demonstrate how technology can transform a music festival into an immersive experience. Luminex and L-Acoustics were at the very heart of this year’s show, and that partnership looks set to continue into next year. Tomorrowland 2027 is going to be bigger than ever and will expand across multiple global locations, including Brazil, the US and a Winter France edition. It’s unclear at present what Tomorrowland Belgium’s theme will be, but keep an eye out for it!

omorrowland has developed into more than just an electronic dance music festival, becoming an

This year, the festival returned stronger than ever, welcoming 400,000 festivalgoers across two weekends. The theme for 2026 was ‘Consciencia’ (exploring six primal emotions: wonder, love, anger, joy, desire and sadness). Consciencia was developed as its own creative universe and extended to spin-offs of the festival – Tomorrowland Thailand and Tomorrowland Brasil – connecting the three instalments through a single shared world of emotion. The 16 stages saw performances from Martin Garrix, Calvin Harris, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Amelie Lens, David Guetta, Novah, Hardwell, Charlotte de Witte and many more. Sound reinforcement is integral to delivering a consistent experience at a festival as large as Tomorrowland. The main stage featured a system built around L-Acoustics K1 and K2 loudspeaker arrays, supported by KS28 and CS1 subwoofers. Line arrays allow multiple loudspeakers to work together to project sound across large audience areas, while carefully configured subwoofers provide the low-frequency energy associated with electronic dance music.

immersive experience that combines music, stage design, technology and storytelling. Held in the aptly named Belgian town of Boom, Tomorrowland is one of the world’s largest music festivals. First held in 2005, it has been awarded numerous accolades and awards since its inception, including being voted five times in a row as Best musical event of the year at the International Dance Music Awards. Around 10,000 people attended the first edition of the festival, with performances by Sven Väth, Sasha, Armin van Buuren, Erol Alkan and Justice. In 2008, attendees rose to 50,000, and by 2009 all the tickets were sold out for the first time. However, 2011 marked a bigger turn for the festival when, due to high demand, a third day was added. Remarkably, all 180,000 tickets were sold in less than a day. Since then, L-Acoustics has collaborated with the festival alongside NoizBoyz, designers of Tomorrowland’s audio systems.

SOUND PARTNERSHIP Audio brand L-Acoustics has collaborated on the Tomorrowland festival with audio system designers NoizBoyz for 15 years

COACHELLA DATES 10–12 April 2026 (weekend 1) and 17–19 April 2026 (weekend 2) LOCATION Empire Polo Club, Indio, California, US

ver the years, Coachella has developed into one of the most recognisable music festivals in

the world, attracting international artists and audiences to the California desert. Coachella 2026 took place at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, marking the festival’s 25th edition across two weekends: 10–12 and 17–19 April. At the second-largest stage, Outdoor Theatre, acts rotated quickly throughout the day. Initially inspired by a 1993 Pearl Jam concert at the Empire Polo Club that proved the remote desert venue could host massive crowds, the festival has since expanded its scale. This year’s line-up included Sabrina Carpenter, Kacey Musgraves, Justin Bieber, Karol G, PinkPantheress and Iggy Pop. At this edition of the festival, American singer-songwriter Dijon and his band faced a unique opportunity: a 6.40pm slot, which ultimately meant their set would begin before sunset and end after dark. With little time between acts, they needed quick-to-set-up lighting that would look great, cover the nine-person band (plus guests) and handle the transition from day to night. The solution was four Aputure STORM 1000c LED fixtures paired with Lantern 90 modifiers, boomed out over the performers. Set to a clean white wash, the four units provided a flattering fill. The STORM fixtures match natural daylight, making skin tones, instruments and every detail in frame look perfect for the stage set-up. The intentionally simple set-up allowed the evolving California sunset to provide extra lighting transitions. Audience footage across the massive backing screen added scale and emotion. The STORM 1000c played an important role in creating a consistent lighting environment. One of the most exciting sets at this year’s show was Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Sabrinawood’, which featured numerous celebrity guests, including Will Ferrell, Madonna and Susan Sarandon. The 2026 edition was a big event for the festival, although a few of the Friday spots were cancelled due to severe storms. The 2027 instalment is looking to be another exciting one and headliners are set to be announced early next year. Watch this space!

QUICK TURNAROUND 2026 marked the 25th edition of the festival, which took place over two weekends in April and included an Outdoor Theatre stage

THE ISLAND FESTIVAL DATES 3–7 September 2026 LOCATION Obonjan Island, Croatia (private island takeover near Šibenik)

ear Croatia’s Dalmatian coast is a private island that turns itself into an intimate electronic music festival

Lovrić worked alongside the manufacturer to deliver sound across the festival. “When the Lost Thought team asked us to join them again, it was an immediate yes, because we had fallen in love with the festival,” adds Karel Noon, application support engineer at HK Audio. “The surroundings are wonderful, the artist booking is almost insanely good and every show takes place somewhere different. There is so much variety.” HK Audio was on site throughout the festival, supporting the deployment and programming of the systems across five distinct settings: the Amphitheatre, Bar, Pool, Forest and Noir party boat. The unique festival is set to return to the island in 2027, which will mark its ten-year anniversary.

each year. There are no day tickets, and once attendees arrive by boat, the entire island becomes their home for the duration. The island is limited to around 700 attendees. “More than half of our guests come back year after year,” begins Marco Lucarelli, organiser of The Island Festival and managing director of Crystal Collegium Travel GmbH. “We want to maintain that family tradition, so we ask people to bring their friends and allow the festival to grow organically. It isn’t overcrowded or over-commercialised.” HK Audio returned to Obonjan at the invitation of Lost Thought, whose co-owners and technical leads Tobias Rauhut and Stefan

ISLAND MENTALITY HK Audio was present at all the festival’s settings, including the Pool, Forest and Noir party boat

RELOAD FESTIVAL DATES 13–15 August 2026 LOCATION Sulingen, Lower Saxony, Germany

LED plates. With 12 individually controllable strobe segments and 48 plate segments, the fixture offers a wide range of effects, from powerful strobe bursts to subtle colour changes and broad washes. At Reload, Bröcking made use of this versatility, combining punchy strobe effects with wider illumination to enhance the overall stage design. “I can have the fixture hanging in the roof in its largest mode, and a guest lighting designer still patches only the smallest fixture if that suits their show better,” says Bröcking. Existing programming does not have to subordinate itself to the festival set-up. The set-up adapts to the production instead. Reload returns from 12 to 14 August 2027, with Electric Callboy and Heaven Shall Burn confirmed as headliners so far.

aunched in 2006 and originally held in Twistringen, Reload Festival moved to Sulingen in 2011. With Judas Priest,

as though they had crossed a desert. But we didn’t have a single failure.” The festival design has come from Christie Lites for many years, with Bröcking developing the set-up and handling coordination with the bands. Having worked on Reload since 2019, he knows precisely what a design of this kind has to achieve. It must give the mainstage its own particular visual frame, while remaining open enough for changing productions to fold it into their own shows without detours. “The JDC Burst 1s were distributed evenly across the back of the rig,” he says. “They served as classic strobes, and at the same time, the LED plate let us give the set a visual finish along the top.” The JDC Burst 1 combines a segmented white strobe line with two large-area RGBW

In Flames and Arch Enemy headlining the bill at this year’s event, the German festival staged its largest edition to date, drawing a record 20,000 visitors to a festival pitched between metal, hardcore and punk. Christie Lites was responsible for lighting, video, rigging equipment and the preprogramming studio on the Impericon Mainstage, under project manager Michael Casper. On the Impericon Mainstage, 24 GLP JDC Burst 1 and eight MAD MAXX fixtures formed part of the festival design. “There was a 15-metre-high dome of dust standing over the festival,” recalls designer Toto Bröcking. “The fixtures looked afterwards

OUT OF DARKNESS Christie Lites provided lighting, video and rigging for the main stage at this

year’s Reload

ELECTRIC FOREST DATES 25–28 June 2026 LOCATION Double JJ Resort, Rothbury, Michigan, US

he 14th instalment of Electric Forest featured over 100 artists, spanning electronic, jam band, indie and bass

to quickly match colours and manipulate the content to complement the artist’s production.” The stage featured a 5mm LED proscenium header, two iMAG screens and a 7mm upstage LED wall, creating a combined canvas of 7056×2864 pixels. Supplied by Screenworks as part of the wider video systems across Sherwood Court, Ranch Arena and Tripolee, Hippotizer Media Servers powered Observatory’s scenic visuals and displayed artist content on the upstage wall when visiting acts did not bring their own video operator. The workflow also had to accommodate the different approaches of visiting artists and their visual teams. “Hippotizer gives us the flexibility to trigger scenic looks, adjust colour correction, apply visual effects and make live creative changes from whichever controller is most appropriate,” adds Harris. That continuity extends year to year. “I’m able to import last year’s show file, add any additional content and carry on where I left off,” Harris explains. “Even importing our content backup of around 160GB takes only a matter of minutes.” Reliability was equally important. Despite powering the large-format scenic canvas alongside artist content, the Hippotizer systems ran throughout the four-day event without requiring technical support.

genres, including Illenium, Excision, Kaskade, GRiZ (with their Chasing the Golden Hour set), Chris Lake and The String Cheese Incident. More than 40,000 people spent four days under the glow of Sherwood Court, the stage that has slowly become Electric Forest’s visual signature. Every set played out across a scenic canvas more than 7000 pixels wide, converting lighting, lasers and video fused into a single environment. This was all driven by Hippotizer Media Servers from Green Hippo. Behind that canvas is Observatory, which has spent the past five years helping to build Sherwood Court’s distinctive identity. “Artist video jockeys are often slightly concerned about another operator becoming part of their show,” says Simon Harris, technical director at Observatory. “But they quickly see that I’m there to enhance the audience experience while keeping the stage aesthetic on brand.” He adds: “The biggest challenge is always trying to complement the incoming artist production while retaining the festival and Sherwood Court aesthetic. “Having a wealth of creative FX at my fingertips allows me

SEE YOU IN COURT The Sherwood Court stage at Electric Forest was built by Observatory and powered by Green Hippo’s Hippotizer Media Servers

WOODSTOCK DER BLASMUSIK DATES 2-5 July 2026 LOCATION Ort im Innkreis, Austria

he Woodstock der Blasmusik (Woodstock of Brass Music) is Europe’s largest brass music

festival, held annually in Ort im Innkreis, Austria. The festival was officially launched in 2011. It started with around 9000 guests over a period of four days in Kopfing im Innkreis, but most recently, it saw 110,000 visitors across four days, from 2 to 5 July 2026. Around 150 bands with about 1500 musicians from 11 countries performed on the nine stages. Sennheiser’s digital Spectera wideband wireless systems were selected for the festival. The EW-DX mic series and Neumann Miniature Clip Mic (MCM) systems were used on the main stages. “We are using Spectera at our festival for the second time this year, and our initial scepticism towards the innovative WMAS technology has quickly given way to wholehearted enthusiasm,” says Mario Schwarz, technical director of the festival. Wireless technology plays an integral role at a festival featuring so many musicians across multiple stages. Wireless systems help reduce cable clutter and give musicians greater freedom on stage. Sennheiser’s Spectera platform uses wideband wireless technology

BOLD AS BRASS Woodstock der Blasmusik used Sennheiser’s Spectera wideband wireless systems in 2026 for the second time, enabling clutter-free stages

The festival presented a diverse range of music, from traditional folk music to high-energy Balkan brass and contemporary jazz, as well as bass-heavy urban brass music with techno influences. Alongside the concerts, there were workshops, panel discussions and competitions that formed an integral part of the programme, which was held under a motto that perfectly summed up this event: ‘Love, Peace & Brass Music’. The combination of Sennheiser and Neumann technology ensures that festivalgoers can enjoy the live music without the sound being compromised. With the high number of bands performing across multiple stages, reliable wireless transmission and precise microphone placement were both essential to delivering consistent sound throughout the event. The 2027 edition of the festival will be celebrating its 15th anniversary, and only bands that have previously performed at Woodstock of Brass Music will be playing to mark the occasion. Featuring a ‘Best of’ concept, artists already lined up include Fäaschtbänkler, Querbeat, Sašo Avsenik & seine Oberkrainer, Die Innsbrucker Böhmische and Lucky Chops.

will mercilessly expose any weakness in the electro-acoustic signal chain. The transients and extreme attack phases require absolutely clean reproduction. For that reason, it’s extremely important for us to use top-quality microphones that are able to operate without distortion even at very high volume levels.” To address these demands, Neumann MCM systems were used to close-mic the instruments. According to Schwarz, they can handle extremely high sound pressure levels without any issues. “I’d say that, in the meantime, 90% of all festival bands are equipped with clip-on microphones and are very satisfied,” he says. “Although there are a few large brass bands that still use the conventional A/B stereo microphone configuration with support microphones, these tend to be the exception nowadays. Close-miking directly at the instruments offers significant advantages, particularly in a festival situation and on loud stages.” Schwarz adds: “In fact, placing the microphones close to the instrument bell really does produce a good sound when the individual signals are skilfully mixed and enhanced with the right amount of reverb or room simulation.”

to support multiple audio channels through a single wireless link, simplifying complex stage set-ups. For a festival that hosts a staggering 150 bands, this approach can make managing microphones, transmitters and audio signals more efficient, while supporting the demands of a busy live production environment.

The Buffet Crampon Main Stage featured a double-stage set-up with

two Sennheiser Spectera Base Stations, 12 handheld transmitters and 24 bodypacks, alongside 24 Neumann MCM clip-on microphone sets. The Allerhand Stage and Kraut & Ruabm Arena also used Spectera systems, while the Woodstock Stadel relied on Sennheiser EW-DX digital wireless equipment and additional Neumann microphones. Brass instruments can also fluctuate in sound volumes and dynamic range. Sound engineers are faced with challenges to accurately capture these sharp changes. Schwarz is a qualified sound engineer and passionate trumpet player. “I have a very clear mental image of exactly how brass music should sound,” he says. “When brass band music is played through a sound system, it should be as natural as possible. The incredible dynamic range of the instruments

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NAMELESS FESTIVAL DATES 30 May to 1 June 2026 LOCATION Bione, Lecco, Italy

ndoubtedly one of the most scenic festivals out there, Nameless Festival originated in 2013 after a party was

festival stage in Europe to have an L-Acoustics DJ spatial sound system, and every stage on site was powered by the brand. “We wanted to have L-Acoustics on every single stage because our artists and technicians all prefer it,” says Nameless production designer Angelo Loizzi. “We consistently see L-Acoustics as the first choice on technical riders. Touring technicians are familiar with it and love it for the low end it delivers for electronic music.” Technical and lighting designer Nico Berna of Black Box, also an L-Acoustics partner, handled the stage and coverage design with the Nameless production team’s Jacopo Naso. Each unique stage was designed around its own footprint, load limits and programme.

Ploom Stage was home to the three headliners and was built on 12 K1s and two K2s per side below six K1-SBs, which extended the line to better control low frequency over the audience, with additional KS28 subwoofers. The Live Stage carried hangs of four K1-SBs with 12 K2s each side and 16 ground-stacked KS28 subs. The Garnier Fructis Arena – the rap, urban and pop stage – had ten K2s per side, with 16 cardioid-configured, ground-stacked KS28s. The Red Bull Energy Zone ran Kara IIs and A15s across the seven arrays in the DJ set-up, on the 16m ring, with eight KS28s on the low end, while the Heineken Stage relied on a scaled-down Kara II and A15 rig. The festival is set to return next June. An event for music lovers and travel fanatics.

thrown by a group of friends at the Bione sports centre in Lecco, on a single stage. Lecco is located on the shores of Lake Como and is surrounded by mountain scenery – and Nameless embraces its unique location. Skip ahead 13 years and it returned to the same ground as one of Italy’s defining electronic music events. This time featuring four stages and more than 100 artists and 90,000 festivalgoers across three days. Calvin Harris, John Summit and FISHER headlined this year’s edition, and the occasion also marked two firsts for the festival’s audio. The Red Bull Energy Zone became the first

HIGHS AND LOWS French brand L- Acoustics is the partner of choice for the Nameless Festival

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CLOUT FESTIVAL DATES 10-11 July 2026 LOCATION Bemowo Airport, Warsaw, Poland

LOUT is the only Polish festival focused on the global rap and urban scene. The event takes place across

two days, with more than 60,000 attendees. The 2026 edition featured an array of artists including Don Toliver, Ken Carson, Wiz Khalifa and Skepta. Over the years, the festival has also played host to acclaimed artists such as A$AP Rocky, Playboi Carti, Young Thug, Lil Uzi Vert and Jack Harlow. Established in 2022, the festival has rapidly grown into one of Central Europe’s premier destinations for modern trap, new wave and underground rap culture, and the event regularly draws over 35,000 attendees per day. The festival has changed locations a number of times, previously taking place at Łazienkowska Street and the Służewiec Racecourse before moving to Bemowo Airport. Hosting a festival of this scale, and at an airport, requires meticulous planning. ARAM delivered lighting and multimedia on both stages, with the lighting system comprising 60 JDC Burst 1s, 74 JDC2 IPs, 50 Creos and 39 WildBar 16 fixtures. A total of 223 GLP fixtures were deployed across CLOUT Festival 2026. With 60 GLP JDC Burst 1 fixtures, the lighting system made a strong impact at the festival. The 74 GLP JDC2 IP units were integrated into the stage design, creating a cohesive visual structure that extended beyond their role as individual lighting fixtures. Their IP65 rating also made them an ideal choice for the demands of outdoor festival production, where conditions can be entirely unpredictable. Complementing this set-up, the 39 GLP WildBar 16 fixtures added further linear elements and graphic definition, enhancing the overall lighting architecture. Following another large-scale production in 2026, CLOUT is set to return to Bemowo Airport in 2027, with tickets already on sale.

RUNWAY

SUCCESS CLOUT’s airport location

allows for large-scale production – with ARAM delivering lights and multimedia

Words in the wild Bubble Production relied on FUJINON LA30x7.8BRM 4K broadcast lenses to capture 11 days of author talks, debates and live events at this year’s Hay Festival

Europe, the Americas and beyond. Its work has earned international recognition, including Spain’s 2020 Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities. Since its launch, this ‘Glastonbury of books’ now reaches up to 250,000 visitors and has played host to guest speakers such as Stephen Fry, Bill and Hillary Clinton and Zadie Smith. The 2026 festival took place on 21-31 May and featured over 500 events spanning author talks, debates, poetry and music. Guest speakers at the event included Emma Thompson, Malala Yousafzai, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Gisèle Pelicot. Covering an event of this scale requires a flexible set-up capable of capturing both the atmosphere of a live audience and the detail of individual speakers. To help the festival deliver live productions to audiences not only on site but also around the world, Bubble Production relied on several FUJINON LA30x7.8BRM 2/3-inch 4K portable broadcast lenses paired with Blackmagic cameras. Across 11 demanding days, crews captured hundreds of author interviews, panel discussions,

live audience events and keynote presentations, often working from the early morning through to late evening. With such a varied programme of events, the production team needed equipment that would be able to easily adapt to a wide range of filming environments and presentation styles. From intimate conversations with individual authors to larger panel sessions, each format presented different demands in terms of framing, movement and audience coverage. Maintaining a consistent visual standard across the festival was just as important, particularly when switching between speakers and stages throughout the day. Reliability and operational flexibility therefore played a critical role in the equipment selection. Throughout the festival, the FUJINON LA30x7.8BRM lenses were consistently flawless. With cameras locked in fixed positions and presenters constantly swapping in and out, a versatile zoom range is essential. The 30x optical zoom enabled operators to transition seamlessly from wide stage shots to tight close-ups while

ay Festival is a global charity celebrating stories, ideas and new possibilities. Founded in Hay-on-Wye in 1987, it

brings diverse voices together to exchange ideas, challenge perspectives and explore the political, social and environmental issues shaping our world. Sitting on the Wales-England border, the town is home to an impressive 24 bookshops, which equates to roughly one bookstore for every 70 residents. Through festivals, forums, digital platforms and learning programmes, Hay Festival reaches millions of people worldwide, with events across The 30x optical zoom enabled operators to transition seamlessly from wide stage shots to tight close-ups

STREAMING TO THE WORLD FUJINON LA30x7.8BRM lenses were key to helping Bubble Production broadcast the 2026 Hay Festival to book lovers everywhere

maintaining exceptional image quality, making these lenses an ideal choice for live event production. Not just tailored for live entertainment, the lenses are also suited to sports broadcasting and virtual studio productions due to their versatile zoom speeds. Whether tracking a speaker moving across a stage, capturing a change in seating position or framing a small gesture, operators could respond to the action quickly – making the lenses a valuable addition to the festival’s production set-up. Fujifilm introduced the FUJINON LA30x7.8BRM lens to meet a rising demand for portable equipment that streamlines filming operation while maintaining superb image quality. At 190mm long and weighing just 1.7kg, this lens has built a stellar reputation for its mixture of compactness and optical excellence.

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Murder, mayhem and a revolving glass house: discover the technology bringing Simon Stone’s ambitious production to life

Words Verity Butler Images Johan Persson

hen it comes to Greek tragedy, few families have a history quite as troubled as the House of Atreus. Murder begets murder, revenge demands retribution, and the consequences ripple through generations. In Simon Stone’s interpretation of Aeschylus’ The Oresteia , this ancient cycle of violence unfolds not in a distant mythical kingdom but inside a contemporary glass house, where domestic life and devastating brutality sit uncomfortably close together. The production, staged at London’s Bridge Theatre, placed this fragile-looking home at the centre of the action. Its two storeys revolved throughout the performance, offering the audience constantly shifting perspectives on the characters and their progressively fractured relationships. Behind the glass, the drama played out What TiMax brought was simplicity. It never overcomplicated what we were trying to achieve and the support was wonderful W with a dramatic intimacy; outside, the audience watched as rooms, people and perspectives moved in and out of view. Sound designer Peter Rice was presented with a constantly changing architecture that offered up challenges arguably as significant as any of the production’s more visceral moments. How do you keep a character’s voice anchored to a room when that room is rotating? How do you preserve the audience’s sense of where a conversation is taking place when the physical environment is in perpetual motion? BUILT AROUND MOVEMENT Stone has developed a reputation for reimagining classic texts through a contemporary lens, stripping away the distance between historical drama and modern life. His work tends to place familiar human relationships under an unforgiving spotlight, using recognisable transparent walls exposed the characters’ private lives, while its rotation continually changed the audience’s view of the unfolding drama. The ambitious set design inevitably created an unusual acoustic problem. The house was effectively soundproof, meaning the natural relationship between the performers and the auditorium could not be relied upon to carry their voices. Meanwhile, the changing orientation of the rooms meant that a conventional approach to sound reinforcement risked making voices appear to drift unnaturally as the scenery moved. The production needed a sound system capable of maintaining a convincing sense of place, preserving the intimacy of the performances and ensuring that the audience could follow the story even when its visual focus shifted at speed. Rice identified these demanding requirements before rehearsals began. “With the rotation of the two-storey house, I knew there’d be a need for some sense of location and vertical imaging, so my first choice to achieve that was TiMax, as it allows you to have Z-axis as part of the algorithm.” His solution was to make the rooms, rather than the individual performers, the primary reference points for the tracking system. If the sound followed each actor independently, their voices could appear to travel continuously around the auditorium as they moved within a room. That might be appropriate for a performer crossing a conventional stage, but it would undermine the illusion of watching people inhabit a coherent physical space. Instead, Rice wanted a voice to remain perceptually stable within its room, allowing the audience to register an actor’s arrival or departure without being distracted by unnecessary movement in the sound image. TiMax TrackerD4 tags were therefore fitted to the house structure itself, with the performers assigned to room groups. As the house rotated, the system could track the changing position of each room and maintain the corresponding vocal image. An actor could move across the room without their voice appearing to move with them, while the room itself carried the sound as it travelled. With action unfolding across two levels, the audience needed to also distinguish between rooms on the ground floor and those above. TiMax’s ability to incorporate Z-axis positioning into its spatial calculations allowed Rice to build that sense of height into the design, helping the sound reflect the layered environment on stage. The end result was a soundscape designed around the audience’s perception of the house, keeping the action intelligible while supporting the production’s unsettling sense of proximity. environments to make extraordinary events feel unsettlingly plausible. His approach to The Oresteia was no exception. Instead of presenting the ancient Greek trilogy as a succession of monumental, mythological tableaux, the production brought its violence and power struggles into a family-home-style environment that audiences could immediately recognise. The glass structure was key to this; its

SOUND AROUND THE SET TiMax SoundHub received inputs from the mixing console before distributing audio to 121 amplifier channels and approximately 150 loudspeakers. An LCR (left, centre, right) configuration of overhead drops worked alongside a traditional left-right system comprising four d&b V10P loudspeakers and a further pair positioned upstage. Fifteen front fills were integrated into the stage fascia, while foldback was installed in the ceiling of every room. Together, these elements helped create the close, cinematic vocal presentation that Rice wanted for the production, supporting what he describes as the desired effect of ‘auditory voyeurism’. That intimacy was particularly important given the glass house’s relationship with the audience. The production invited spectators to look into private spaces, observing conversations and confrontations that might otherwise have remained hidden. The sound needed to reinforce that sensation of being close enough to overhear events, without sacrificing clarity across the auditorium. Rice initially planned to position the main LCR speakers along the proscenium line, aligned with the front fills and left-right system. This would have made time alignment more

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