FESTIVAL SEASON 2025
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Abu Dhabi’s Offlimits festival is genre-defying, both in terms of its musical acts and production design, including the stage pictured
Big names at Montreux Jazz Festival Miami were supported by teams from ACT Productions and IPS, along with Elation Lighting equipment
create rich, immersive visuals tailored to the artists’ creative direction. “We’re able to achieve the filmic look we need, and the telephoto focal length means we can capture wide, sweeping shots to showcase intricate stage design or punch tightly framed into the details, to bring the fans face-to-face with the performer,” explains Merser. DO LAB The Do Lab stage also made a bold return to Coachella 2025, once again blending music, art and jaw-dropping visuals – this time with a powerful sonic upgrade. At the heart of it all was Meyer Sound’s Panther large format linear line array and the 2100-LFC low-frequency control element, delivering pristine audio across the expanded dance floor. This year also marked the Coachella COACHELLA: debut of Meyer Sound’s Ultra-X80 point-source loudspeaker. Built for versatility and open-air performances, it proved a perfect match for Do Lab’s dynamic environment. Now located between the Sahara and Quasar stages, the iconic Macrodose canopy returned with more space and bigger crowds than ever. The line-up? A genre-bending mix that included Tycho, Max Styler, Conducta, plus a DJ set by Trixie Mattel. “Every year, we push to make the Do Lab experience even more immersive,
rest of the team’s insight and experience would be invaluable to achieving the visual excellence the festival wanted. In the years since, Stu has taken the role of Coachella’s Main Stage and Outdoor Theatre Stage video supervisor, seeking to integrate the artists’ creative and set design ambitions with the festival’s high-end live production workflow, as well as all the collaborators. “This requires lots of detailed conversations between the artist, festival production and cine cam creatives, particularly as we see production values becoming increasingly more advanced, with elaborate sets and video technology in place,” explained Neuberger. “No matter how complex, no one is better than Stu at translating the needs and wishes from all parties and configuring Alongside video supervision, Vis-A-Vis Video is responsible for delivering live video capture across Coachella’s two main stages. This includes designing and executing multicamera set-ups that are able to blend cinematic style with the precision of live broadcast. Fujifilm’s range of cinematic lenses are a fundamental element of Vis-A-Vis’s creative vision. Lightweight Fujinon Duvo HZK 24-300mm lenses are deployed on railcams, with PTZ units and remote- controlled autopods alongside telephoto 25-1000mm at traditional FOH positions across the festival’s main stages, to these into stunning performance footage. His insight is invaluable.”
designer, but also provides us with feedback opportunities while helping to create a broader market demand for these fixtures. I believe there’s still a willingness to invest in new gear despite the economic challenges. Our industry encompasses a wide variety of segments and, with creative vision demands expanding, we, as production companies, must stay engaged and involved by continuing to provide the right equipment for the job.” COACHELLA The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has been bringing the party to the California desert for over 20 years. For two weekends in April, the biggest music acts and upcoming artists perform not only to more than 250,000 fans on-site, but also to millions more watching the festival’s YouTube streams around the world. Creating a high-end cinematic look and feel for the big screens and the livestream audiences was a key goal of festival organisers Goldenvoice. Their vision was to reflect the unique energy of Coachella and set it apart from coverage of other live events. When Vis-A-Vis Video delivered Billie Eilish’s 2022 headline set, Hank Neuberger, founder and president of Springboard Productions and Coachella’s executive producer for video, knew that company director Stu Merser and the
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