Disco Biscuits founding member Aron Magner has told interviewers that he invited bassist Jason Fratacelli and drummer Matt Scarano to form Spaga, because he wanted to get back to his roots as a pianist. As anyone who’s listened to the trio’s silky jazz infused melodies since they began playing together in October will readily attest, […]

Art is not a reflection of reality – it is the reality of a reflection. Pioneering director Jean-Luc Godard used these words to describe his iconoclastic approach to film making. They apply equally well to the “virtual” productions that this New York City lighting designer and his team at Boum Creative have been pursuing with […]

Our eyes are not intended only for seeing reality. Given the chance, they can also guide us to new, unexplored places where the imagination spreads its wings and takes full flight. This Los Angeles-based designer and her team have been opening the window to this world since 2006. Bending geometric forms and light in novel […]

Consider yourself fortunate when you are given the opportunity to be part of something bigger than yourself. By the standards of this axiom, Chip Self regards himself as being very lucky. The owner of Logic Systems in St. Louis, Self was called upon to light Live Nation’s first foray into drive-in concerts, a series of […]

Soon after the COVID-19 lockdown went into effect, Events United owner Tim Messina and his team began transforming Studio Lab (their shared space production facility in Derry, New Hampshire) into a livestream studio to produce events. They weren’t exactly sure where this effort would take them; they just wanted to keep busy and find a […]

Backed at its inception by radio inventor Guglielmo Marconi himself, RAI has a long history of being in the forefront of broadcasting. It operated Italy’s first radio station, aired the nation’s first regularly scheduled television program, and was a founding member of the European Broadcasting Union. The highly-rated network (it has over a 35-percent share), […]

From the outside, the complex of buildings at 21-25 Bonville Road, Brislington in Bristol UK doesn’t look markedly different than it did in 2019. Inside, however, a quiet revolution is underway. The building’s owner, Pytch, which until recently was known as SXS Events, has been busily reinventing itself since the COVID-19 lockdown brought its thriving […]

Tearing away the veil of silence to set communication free is nothing new to Eberswalde, Germany, a picturesque valley town located a short drive from Berlin. It was here in January 1923 that the world’s first radio concert was broadcast from an experimental tower near the city center. Today, almost a century later, a local […]

Out of nowhere, like a rider in the night, change can swoop in and upend everything before we even fully grasp what has happened. Like everyone in the live event business, this production house entrepreneur experienced this unnerving sensation first-hand in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Festivals like the Chesapeake Bay Blues, Preakness Infield […]

With indoor concerts prohibited or restricted, drive-in concerts are becoming a more familiar part of the live entertainment landscape. How do lighting designers create engaging looks in this retro setting? Simplifying rigs and blending lights with the surrounding environment are two ways as these two examples show. Brent Maxon Lighting Keith Urban Social Distancing… the […]

Slowly, but surely the event lighting industry is taking its first tentative steps out of the lockdown. The journey back will most likely be a long one, filled with unanticipated twists and setbacks, but few doubt that concerts and theatrical productions will reemerge to fill the basic, and very human, needs they have always filled. […]

March 16 started out like many other spring days for this designer and production specialist. The festival season starts early in Phoenix, where temperatures nudge into the 80s, while northern cities are still plowing snow off the highways. Garberson and his team at Creative BackStage were less than an hour from opening the doors of […]