< PreviousJanuary 2026 news 10 Patch Productions Invests in DiGiCo Quantum 326 and Quantum 326T to Supply Cheltenham Jazz Festival and a Busy Theatrical Touring Schedule Patch Productions director, Toby Chevis, is a man on a mission to deliver the very finest outdoor events and theatrical sound possible. He started his rental company journey early in life, building a freelance career from the age of just 14. His first DiGiCo console was the SD8, which enabled him to supply the Cheltenham Jazz festival. He now supplies every Cheltenham Festival and, with his latest purchase of a pair of brand-new Quantum 326s (one with the T software installed) he is supplying an increasing number of theatrical and touring shows too. “As a kid, I was always into music and when I started freelancing, I bought my own kit. I started with microphones, small PAs and it grew from there,” he recalls. “Buying that first DiGiCo SD8 was a big step, but the work followed once I had it. The company officially started in 2018, but I’ve been doing gigs as Patch since I started out.” As a freelancer, Chevis was able to refine his skills, working out which areas of the industry most appealed. For him, theatre and live events had the biggest draw, so the company has focused on expanding into those key areas, delivering the audio for theatrical touring shows. The size and complexity of these shows is continually growing, increasing the amount of prep-work required. Chevis now finds that he is adapting his working model and the size of his consoles. “We custom build all our racks and we’re finding that jobs are becoming very time critical, so prep is more important than ever,” he continues. “The touring model of one or two days in a venue, where you have to be in and working within two hours, seems to be a big chunk of our work. Speed like that requires very careful preparation.” The purchase of a Quantum 326T has reinforced the upward trajectory for Patch Productions. Packing 156 input channels, with 72 busses and a 36 x 36 matrix into a compact 1.1m frame allows Chevis to remain nimble during speedy load-ins but also cater for larger shows that are being broadcast. The Cheltenham Jazz Festival is an example of this, with many touring acts bringing their own consoles, but more relying on Patch’s pair of Quantum 326, one on stage and one at the front of house position. “The Cheltenham Jazz Festival is another busy show with acts like Lulu, Beverley Knight and Roger Daltrey all coming through with their own consoles,” Chevis explains. “We needed compact but capable consoles at front of house and monitors because space was at a premium, but we could still serve acts like Macy Gray, Lisa Stansfield and the Buena Vista All Stars, who all used our consoles.” DiGiCo’s T software opens up the console’s flexibility with features designed specifically for theatre shows. The Advanced Auto-Update Cue system ensures each channel only updates as required when a scene is changed, meaning that cast and musicians can follow different parameters, while the Aliases and Players function unlocks even greater flexibility for covers and costume changes. For Chevis, this expanded usability has delivered another opportunity, in the form of the 30th anniversary concert performance of Songs for a New World, written and composed by Jason Robert Brown at the Eventim Apollo Theatre in London. “We have done some exciting gigs, but the Songs for a New World performances were another level. We rolled through the doors at 7am and were sound checking by 10am,” he recalls. “It’s fun. We love a musical, especially with an orchestra, it’s what we do. The T software is really useful for scene-based shows like this, especially when there is timecode. It is packed with great features.” Patch Productions continues to grow and DiGiCo will be there to support Chevis’s journey because, as he concludes, DiGiCo products do exactly what he needs and more, with no compromises. “For a long time, we tried to replicate what DiGiCo does without actually buying one, but that had varying levels of success,” says Chevis. “It’s great to get a pair of brand-new Quantum 326s, it raises the bar for the company as a whole. Getting in early meant that new clients found us as a result. We supplied the Libertines for their Glastonbury rehearsals because they would be using a Q326 for monitors on site. They used ours for a few days so they could make their show file and take it with them. They found us because we had the Quantum 326s in stock. Choosing DiGiCo has been a catalyst for growth in the company, we’ve made a big investment, especially for the theatre side of the business and the work has followed.” Robe’s T32 Cyc Wins the 2025 JTSE Award for Lighting Innovation Robe lighting’s T32 Cyc has won an acclaimed Award for Lighting Innovation at the 2025 Journées Techniques du Spectacle et de l’Événement (JTSE) entertainment and production technology expo staged in Paris. The show is one of the most important professional events in France for the performing arts and associated lighting industries. The Award highlights a fixture that redefines cyclorama lighting, combining power, uniformity and precision in a format designed for the demands of modern stages and in collaboration with input from some leading lighting designers, opera houses and theatres. Robe’s T32 Cyc features all the performance, tools, subtlety and control to make designs more exciting and visually stimulating, offering greater reach, smoother coverage and more visual impact than previous LED luminaires of this type. It is low-profile and easily inter-connectable, containing powerful RGBBAL multi-chip LEDs that generate high light levels and faithfully reproduce the full-spectrum colours and tints loved by designers and directors worldwide. The industry-leading Opti-6 6:1 height-to-distance ratio optical design – with a classic asymmetric beam – provides beautiful coverage, even when in close proximity to the cyclorama or surface, potentially freeing up more stage space for performers. The T32 Cyc perfectly embodies Robe’s DNA and in- house engineering excellence, elevating the ‘made in Europe’ concept with a sharp sense of invention, combined with a deep understanding of real-world applications. Beyond the product, the JTSE Award recognition celebrates the vision, technical boldness and excellence that is at the essence of all Robe products and has special significance for both Robe Lighting France and Robe Lighting s.r.o. as a prize judged and awarded by industry professionals, from a trade show renowned for high technical standards and quality attendees. It also honours a product designed and manufactured in Europe, at a time when industrial sovereignty and equipment reliability are more important than ever for technicians, lighting designers and rental companies. Winning the award further reaffirms Robe’s position as a market leader in stage and performance lighting, producing ever more innovative solutions for TV studios, theatres, touring productions and live events. This distinction is also a direct tribute to the outstanding work of Robe lighting’s brilliant research and development teams based in the Czech Republic. As technological pillars of the brand, they are at the heart of every Robe product launch and success and their expertise, creativity and commitment have again been recognised by the French market. Robe Lighting France and Robe Lighting s.r.o. extend their sincere thanks to the JTSE Awards jury, the expo organisers and Éditions AS, to everyone who supported the T32 Cyc during the voting process, to partners and clients for their trust; and to the entire Robe lighting s.r.o. R&D department for all the thought and invention that has gone into this outstanding product. photo: Courtesy Robe Lighting FranceIssue: 395 news 11 Production Futures ON TOUR Returns to AO Arena in Manchester Production Futures has announced that its Manchester 2026 ON TOUR event will take place for a third successive year at the city’s AO Arena. The event takes place on Monday 20th April at the cutting- edge venue, one of the largest of its kind in the UK. Set to attract a wide range of visitors from across north-west England and beyond, this free-of- charge event will promote employability, transferable skills, diversity, free training and networking, and will present paid work opportunities to newcomers across the live event and broadcast production industry. A host of world-leading manufacturers, supply and production companies, venues and distributors will have representatives present at the event to provide advice, information and insights, and discuss specific job and training opportunities. As well as manufacturers and suppliers, Production Futures also works closely with a range of organisations, initiatives, education partners and associations, connecting employment and training opportunities to a diverse pool of talent. They too will have representatives available to answer questions and offer support. Visitors will enjoy a packed schedule, which includes special guests, talks and panels, workshops, career and CV guidance, as well as opportunities to get hands on with a variety of technologies. Production Futures CEO Hannah Eakins looks ahead to the event:“Both of our previous ON TOUR events at the AO Arena have been incredibly inspiring for everyone in attendance. The venue represents everything that is great about our industry and we are grateful to its team for their continued support. “The contribution of the production industries to the UK economy is significant. Many young people are simply unaware of the variety of opportunities that fall under the umbrella of the production sector and our aim is to increase the visibility of these opportunities and simultaneously improve the prospects of the whole industry. We do everything we possibly can at our ON TOUR events to highlight the wide range of rewarding and creative careers available to the next generation.” Ellice Eadie, head of marketing for the AO Arena, adds:“It’ll soon be that time of year again: Production Futures back at the AO Arena! As a venue, we remain committed to supporting the next generation looking to break into live events and production. By partnering with Production Futures, we can help to give young people from Manchester and beyond the chance to learn, network and gain real hands-on experience. We’re excited to see even more emerging professionals take their next big step with us. What will 2026 bring?” For more details about the event and travel bursaries, go to https:// productionfutures.com/page/pf-on-tour Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ Amsterdam Chooses ETC Halcyon Silent Fixtures for Auditorium Upgrade The renowned Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ concert venue in Amsterdam has selected ETC Halcyon Silent fixtures as part of a major lighting upgrade in its main hall, a project carried out with the support of ETC dealer Ampco Flashlight. The venue began the project with two key goals: replacing ageing fixtures and improving sustainability by transitioning to LED lighting. With a lighting grid positioned at 11 metres high, the team needed a fixture capable of strong, even output but, importantly, one that produced no noise. Known for its exceptional acoustics and quiet performance environment, the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ required modern fixtures that deliver high output and rich colour while operating in complete silence. After evaluating multiple options, the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ selected the Halcyon Silent fixtures due to its combination of power, colour quality and its completely fanless, silent operation, making it an ideal match for the hall’s sound-sensitive environment. In total, the venue invested in 20 Halcyon Silent fixtures, along with an Eos Apex 5 console to operate the new lights in the 725-seater Main Hall in the building. Head of technical operations at the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ Bart Mesman comments: “ETC and Ampco Flashlight have proven to be very reliable and service-minded partners for our concert hall. The technical backup and the additions of the Halcyon Silent fixtures and Apex console all work fast and great.” ETC field project co-ordinator Robbi Nassi adds: “ETC is proud to support one of Europe’s leading concert venues with lighting solutions that enhance both artistic performance and operational sustainability.” HK Audio Brings Powerful Sound and Support to the Heart & Heavy Charity Concert The annual Heart & Heavy concert once again filled the Lebach Stadthalle with music, community spirit and extraordinary generosity, raising vital funds for children and families living with severe illnesses. As the flagship event within the wider Rock Meets Benefiz initiative, the concert has grown from a small grassroots idea into a major charitable tradition and HK Audio has proudly supported it since the very beginning. Founded in 2017 by Carsten Graf and Christian Karlowatz, Rock Meets Benefiz has become a year-round community effort powered almost entirely by volunteers. More than 300 supporters contribute through donations, small fundraising actions and personal initiatives, helping the organisers raise an incredible €140,000 last year alone, all going directly to families in need. Carsten Graf, co-organiser of the event, said: “Heart & Heavy has really become the centre of what we do. This show brings everyone together: artists, volunteers, engineers and the whole community. Every contribution, no matter how small, genuinely changes lives.” Co-organiser Christian Karlowatz highlighted the growth of the event and the importance of consistent partnerships like HK Audio’s: “We started as a tiny idea with almost no resources, just a desire to help. Today, Heart & Heavy has become something meaningful, not only for us, but for the children and families who depend on these funds. None of this would be possible without the people and companies who stand with us year after year.” To give the concert the power and clarity it deserved, HK Audio put together a tailored CONCERT SOUND 2.0 system designed specifically for the space. At its heart was a COSMO C8 line array, delivering clean, even coverage throughout the hall. For the low end, the team built a cardioid subwoofer set-up using CS 218 and CS 118 units, a configuration that kept the mix full and punchy for the audience while keeping the stage remarkably calm and comfortable for the performers. Up front, CX 210 LT cabinets handled near-fill duties, adding definition for the first few rows, while CX 12 monitors and dedicated drum fills helped the musicians lock in with each other on stage. The result was a set-up that felt powerful, controlled and musical from every position in the room. HK Audio’s Ole Osterthun, who configured and oversaw the system, said: “We built a special COSMO set-up to get the best possible result in this venue. The cardioid sub array kept the low end powerful for the audience but surprisingly quiet on stage. Between the CX 210 LT frontfills and the CX 12 monitoring, the clarity was excellent, the musicians heard exactly what they needed for the whole night.” As Heart & Heavy looks to the future, the organisers remain committed to bringing people together through music and to providing real, immediate help to those facing unimaginable difficulties. Karlowatz added: “This project may have started small, but the impact is huge and with more support, we can keep growing and keep helping the people who need it most.”January 2026 12 features Paddington The Musical at the Savoy Theatre White Light Supplies the Paw-fect Rig for Paddington London’s West End welcomes Paddington The Musical to the Savoy Theatre, a spectacular new production that brings Michael Bond’s iconic bear to life in a heartwarming celebration of family, adventure and marmalade! Produced by Sonia Friedman and directed by Luke Sheppard, the show features lighting design by multi-award-winning Neil Austin, who turned to White Light (WL) to supply the lighting rig and help translate Paddington’s charm into a theatrical experience like no other. Paddington The Musical tells the story of a small, lost bear from Peru who arrives in London in search of a new home, eventually finding the Brown family and the wonderful world of Windsor Gardens. Growing up with the books, Neil’s vision was clear: “Paddington is a diminutive character, so I had to make sure he didn’t blend in. Sculpting him with light was essential to make him feel three-dimensional and alive on stage.” With over 1,100 lighting cues and a score that rarely pauses for dialogue, Neil’s design had to be both dynamic and precise. The Savoy Theatre’s compact stage and ceilinged set added complexity, demanding innovative rigging solutions and meticulous planning. Neil explains: “We had to fight hard for space to integrate a rig that could deliver the impact the story deserved. One of the biggest challenges was dealing with the theatre’s bright, silver-leafed walls, which reflected everything on stage. Our first step was to cover them with a backdrop of London’s night sky to create the right atmosphere. We also extended the stage over the orchestra pit to gain extra space, but that introduced new hurdles: limited frontlighting positions, making the design challenge even more complex.” Neil’s rig combined quiet, compact fixtures to maintain intimacy during still moments without intrusive noise. The set-up featured Martin MAC Encore Spot units, GLP X5 washes for their bright output and fantastic colours, GLP bars as backlight to fit within the small ceiling spaces and Ayrton Kyalami fixtures for laser effects in a key scene. A bespoke innovation was also developed for the show: the GLP X5 Dot, a prototype LED fixture that Neil created in collaboration with GLP to meet the production’s unique needs. Neil shares: “We worked with IP65- rated prototypes running at around 15 watts, offering perfect colour mixing and an integral zoom lens that shifts smoothly from 10° to 40° without changing the unit’s length. Bright, precise and ideal behind the footlights shells. I’m particularly excited about this fixture and think it’s going to be a great addition for the industry.” The production also incorporated Robert Juliat SpotMe tracking combined with LightStrike, a system Neil originally commissioned for Harry Potter. He explains: “This hybrid approach ensured Paddington remained perfectly lit despite the performer’s limited visibility inside the costume. We initially questioned whether the performers would consistently hit their marks, but they proved remarkably reliable. This set-up allows followspots to control stage lights while retaining the advantage of human operators who can anticipate and adapt better than any automated tracker.” Neil credits the success of the lighting design to close collaboration with WL and his own team: “WL’s technical expertise and London base made all the difference. From sourcing compact units like the Ayrton Kyalami for laser effects to providing essential support on networking and special effects, their partnership was invaluable.” The result is a production where lightingIssue: 395 features 13 doesn’t just illuminate, it tells the story. From Paddington’s first steps in London to the dazzling Natural History Museum sequence, Neil’s design ensures audiences experience the warmth, humour and wonder that have made Paddington a global treasure. WL’s head of lighting, Dom Yates, adds: “Neil has a long standing and trusted relationship with Dave Isherwood (WL’s technical director) and to have been able to work with both on them on this project has been a rewarding experience. The collaboration between WL, Neil and GLP over the development of the X5 Dot has been one of my personal highlights; we believe it is a fantastic product and it will be taking its place in our rental fleet early next year.” As Paddington continues to wow audiences and receive five-star reviews, we’re proud to have been part of this rather amazing adventure! Photography by Johan Persson ADI Unveils State-of-the-Art Screens at London’s Iconic Savoy Theatre With all eyes on The Savoy Theatre, digital venue transformation specialist, ADI, gave the historic building a total LED makeover. Famed for being the first public building in the world to be lit by incandescent electric lights, The Savoy Theatre has always pushed the boundaries of digital innovation. With the world-renowned theatre looking to enhance and optimise its signage, ADI has successfully designed and installed its proprietary 4mm MT Series LED screens in three exterior locations at the legendary venue: a 9.68sqm curved display on the main high street, a 5.53sqm dual-sided vertical banner on the outside facade and 6.91sqm canopy ribbon at the entrance of the theatre and luxury hotel, providing multiple digital canvases for The Savoy Theatre to connect with its audiences. Sustainable by design, the MT Series offers an incredibly lightweight and slimline LED display product offering a range of unique design features that drive energy efficiency, reliability and sustainability over operational lifespan. Commenting on the installation, Matthew Turbett, general manager at The Savoy Theatre, said: “We chose ADI because of their proven expertise in seamlessly integrating LED screen hardware within historically significant venues.” “We were looking for a digital signage partner that understood the balance between blending new technology with our theatre’s unique heritage. Their super lightweight and slimline MT Series product offered the high visual impact we needed to engage our audiences effectively, while allowing us to use the latest LED technologies across our venue.” ADI has been an expert in the UK’s leisure and entertainment industry for over 34 years, leveraging extensive experience to complete numerous landmark venue developments successfully. Transforming and future-proofing the theatre world, one venue at a time, ADI recently designed and installed bespoke LED signage featuring its MT Series product on the exterior facades of two other leading West End Theatres: The Prince Edward Theatre and the Dominion Theatre. These installations enhanced each theatre’s digital platform for promotion and visitor experiences. Prior to these, ADI also upgraded the digital signage of the Gielgud Theatre with installations including a curved screen above the prominent corner entrance and a strip of LED ribbon running along the side of the building to the neighbouring Sondheim Theatre, both in MT 4mm. As theatres continue to elevate the audience experience, many are upgrading from static signage to high resolution LED displays. This transition reflects a broader trend toward flexibility and innovation, enabling venues to adapt content instantly – from showtimes and promotions to immersive storytelling moments – while delivering greater visual impact. Drew Burrow, head of bespoke and creative at ADI’s displays division, commented: “We are incredibly proud to have provided the famous Savoy Theatre with a bespoke digital upgrade just in time for such an exciting show premiere.” “Transforming a venue steeped in history requires a delicate balance of technical expertise and creative vision; our sustainable MT Series is the perfect solution to deliver high visual impact that respects the building’s heritage while bringing it firmly into the modern era.” January 2026 14 features Britannia Row Meets Showbiz for Jade’s First Solo Tour Britannia Row has supplied a compact control package to ‘Angel of my Dreams’ singer and Little Mix star Jade Thirlwall on her first UK solo headline tour. Working with FOH mixer Olly Nendick and monitor engineer Meghan MacAskill, account executive Jonathan ‘Jono’ Dunlop provided a small footprint touring system to transition from festival season into theatre- size venues, creating a comfortable stage environment for the singer’s solo journey. Olly begins: “Since the start of her career, Jade had only toured in arenas, going from the X Factor and straight into huge gigs with an army of fans. We knew it could be more of a challenge for her to play in intimate venues as a solo performer with factors such as being closer to the PA and hearing audience noise close up, but she absolutely always delivers.” Both Olly and Meghan chose the Allen & Heath dLive S5000 control surface to fit nicely into small areas while needing to generate a big pop sound through in-house PA systems. He continues: “FOH-wise, there’s not too much for me to deal with; there’s some distorted effects in a couple of her songs, which can be a little bit tricky with potential feedback, but I just like to use the console as it is. I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.” Adding to the simplicity of the tour is Britannia Row’s service; Olly hadn’t worked with Jono before, but comments: “He’s looked after us really well. Britannia Row has been a great supplier. Keeping the package as uncomplicated as possible means we have got less things to go wrong, but we when did encounter an issue during production rehearsals, a new desk was delivered within two hours!” Despite this being a small venue campaign, the tour has some industry veterans overseeing its success, namely tour director Ant Carr and production manager Karen Ringland. “They’re the nicest bunch of people to tour with and Jade herself is lovely,” adds Olly. “She’s made a varied album that we’ve all been excited by. It’s great to mix live too; it’s a proper musical journey,” he says, noting the genre-bending disco-cum-80s pop music inspiration found on ‘That’s Showbiz Baby’, Jade’s debut album which garnered the biggest opening week of the UK’s 2025 album charts. “It’s mainly a track-based show but we have live drums, live guitar, live keys and a couple of saxophones. My only real challenge was that the audience knows every word of every song and they scream them very loudly!” At the monitor station, Meghan agrees: “She does have impressively loud crowds which is picked up through her mic. We’ve used processes to eliminate that noise so that she feels comfortable on stage, but she’s had to adapt to the spaces quickly and navigate her way through a much more intimate crowd dynamic. “It’s been an intense tour that everyone’s worked so hard to get right. I have been so lucky to work with such an amazing team and we’re all really proud of how it has turned out. We did have some last-minute changes happen in audio and Jono sorted it without question.” Meghan’s only outboard is a trusty Bricasti Design M7 reverb unit and to ensure as much familiarity as possible, Jade, who uses Shure PSM1000 IEMs, likes to hear her vocal very present in the mix, with the tracks and band underneath and some click. “She likes a full mix for pitching and to cue to,” Meghan furthers. “We do have a lot of choreography and big theatrical moments in the show, so to achieve as much clarity as possible for the vocals and cues is one of the main goals.” One of the big moments comes when Jade sings from within the audience and in front of the PA. “With the delay between the ears mix and the PA, it can be very off-putting and hard to keep in time. We always run through this moment in soundcheck as the position changes in every venue. During the show, we made up some signals so that if there’s anything she needs, she’ll just give me a sign and I can adapt instantly without her losing concentration.” The reassurance that any additions will be adhered to quickly has been key for the engineers. She continues: “Jono has been amazing. Anything we’ve needed, we’ve had, and quickly. Brit Row has such incredible experience in touring; it’s been great having our gear and all the support from them. We had to be compact for this run compared to our festival season and in talking this through with Jono and Joshua Thomas, UK operations manager, they came up with a plan to make it happen. Brit Row just makes touring as easy as possible.” Following the 13-date UK run, fans in North America and mainland Europe will see the show in February and March 2026. Concluding, Jono says: “It’s been a pleasure working so closely with Jade’s team. Her tour has been met with an incredible audience reaction and she’s really come into her own as a solo artist. I look forward to building on these relationships as her career and live sound undoubtedly progresses even further.”Issue: 395 features 15 SMODE Powers Ambitious Visuals at La Femme’s Iconic Arena Show Real-time compositing and media server platform, SMODE, played a central role in delivering the striking visual universe for French rock band La Femme’s very first concert in France’s largest indoor venue: the Accor Arena in Paris. After starting in small Parisian clubs and performing at venues around the world, the band recently conquered one of the biggest stages in France to present its latest album and celebrate more than ten years of career with their fans. Working alongside long-time collaborator and lighting designer Rémi Deschamps, Quentin Brard, the SMODE operator on this tour, helped shape the show’s artistic direction using real-time video workflow that underpinned the ambitious scenography. Brard was invited onto the project by Deschamps and quickly became a key creative and technical contributor. The visuals behind the show were crafted collaboratively by Deschamps, film director Ilan Zerrouki – who made a lot of the videos and album covers for La Femme – and Brard himself. “My role as SMODE operator extended to an active participation in the artistic development of the show. There was no creative studio or director, as the whole visual aspect of the show was created by Remi, Ilan and myself,” he explained. “There was a great deal of creative freedom, which made the project both exciting and demanding.” At the heart of the stage design stood a dramatic eight-metre inflatable head fitted with LED strips embedded in its hair, eyes and shape. This facial centrepiece was brought to life through projection mapping using two Barco projectors, with a 24m x 12m semi-transparent 40mm pixel pitch mesh LED screen on the back of the stage. Additional video elements included a 24m by 3 metre semi-transparent LED banner above the stage, a left right IMAG projection, two 11-metre runs of Martin Sceptron linear battens along the proscenium, as well as the fixed LED ring that runs around the entire venue. To power all the content to this wide range of video elements, the team relied on two SMODE servers, delivering four 1920/1200 outputs and a 1024/1024 NDI feed dedicated to the head’s LED strips. SMODE’s flexibility allowed Brard to manage and encode the entire system with precision. “SMODE enabled us to send content to all the different surfaces, while making it easy to encode the LED strips on the head shape and the battens that ran along each side of the proscenium,” he said. “We could also enhance camera feeds with stylised effects that extended the scenography and creative camera motions.” SMODE’s compositing engine proved particularly powerful in the creative process. All content for the LED strips on the head was generated directly within the software using its extensive toolbox (uniform, masks, noise, 2D transform and modifier). The same applied to all camera effects, where Brard used tools such as people mask as well as a multitude of modifiers including feedback, sobel, frame delay, blur or kaleidoscope to craft unique content. Several visual ‘paintings’ and the entire LED ring were also created and adapted within SMODE, which simplified the integration workflow. A significant portion of the video content was created by Ilan Zerrouki, known for his work with the band, with the team further reworking existing materials inside SMODE. The video element played a core role in the show, often driving lighting fixtures as well as the inflatable head. With everything integrated into a grandMA2 session, lighting and video interacted fluidly: “Sometimes the light led the show, sometimes it was the video and sometimes both worked together to produce combined effects,” said Brard. Brard praised the creative possibilities unlocked by SMODE. “It’s always a pleasure to work with SMODE and its compositing power,” he said. “On a show with this level of creative freedom and such a substantial video kit, it really made the impossible achievable.” photos:Quentin BrardJanuary 2026 16 features Robe Blinds Friedrichstadt-Palast with Delight One of Berlin’s most iconic venues, the Friedrichstadt-Palast, AKA Palast Berlin, a revue theatre in the city’s Mitte district, has made a substantial investment in Robe moving lights to help facilitate its newly launched Grand Show production, Blinded by Delight, created by Oliver Hoppmann, complete with a vibrant new lighting design by Chris Moylan of Sunrise Studios. The venue now has almost 300 Robe fixtures in the house lighting rig, including 54 Fortes, 22 Paintes, 80 Pointes, 17 MegaPointes, 75 TetraXs, 36 Tetra2s and six ColorStrobes, confirms technical director Thomas Herda, who oversees a technical department of 85 full-time staff helping to bring these spectacular Grand Shows to life on stage. Friedrichstadt-Palast’s Grand Show and Young Show productions – directed and produced by Dr. Berndt Schmidt – both change up every two years, prompting new investments in the venue’s base technical kit, together with some rentals. This year’s new investments into the Grand Show resulted in purchasing the 75 Robe TetraXs used as an animated back-wall matrix of effects upstage of a blow-through LED screen, revealed as another layer of visual surprise in Chris’s design. The 22 Paintes and 36 Tetra2s – supplied to the venue by Robe Germany – are also new for this Grand Show. Thomas has been at Palast Berlin since 2017 and technical director since 2020, and Chris Moylan has been designing lighting there since 2018’s Vivid Grand Show. The venue’s huge stage area is one of the biggest challenges for any production, as it’s a vast space that needs filling with performers and lighting and while the budget is reasonable, it’s not bottomless, so every light needs to bring maximum value to the Grand Show. A total of 656 lighting fixtures are being used for Blinded by Delight; 468 of them are moving and the rest are a mix of LED and conventional luminaires. When Chris first started working at Palast Berlin, there were multiple different types of moving lights in residence and over the years he and Thomas have streamlined and homogenised the inventory, and the majority are now Robe. Paintes were specified by Chris for their expedient size, which makes them handy for installing anywhere. He had used them before, particularly onboard ships where space is always at a premium. In recent years, some of Palast Berlin’s older moving lights have been replaced with Robe Fortes, a product that Chris has been using for a while, but before the final choice, he arranged a comprehensive shoot-out with competitor products for all to see. Forte proved to be the cleanest option with the best colour reproduction. He likes the optics, the whites and the front and thinks they are “an excellent all-in-one package option.” Thomas mentions that having the Fortes and other new Robes in the house rig has also meant less ongoing maintenance is needed. Pointes were the first Robe fixtures there, he elucidated, after which they kept adding to that initial purchase. The total is now 80 x Pointes, which are in constant use, together with the 17 MegaPointes. For Blinded by Delight, 12 MegaPointes a side are rigged in wagons and pushed into positions upstage for specific scenes. Chris’s starting point for lighting a Grand Show is usually the set or production design, which was created for Blinded by Delight by Florian Wieder and Cuno von Hahn, and director and author Oliver Hoppmann also had input into the initial brief at this stage. This is also the first time a full LED screen has been featured on stage, which also influenced Chris in choosing and positioning luminaires. With over 30 individual scenes and musical numbers in the Grand Show, comprising 100 plus performers, including acrobats, aerialists and the famous synchronised Palast Berlin ‘kickline’, the Grand Show sweeps the audience on an “emotional journey into the world of dreams and happiness,” and is an intense, fast-moving and highly dynamic environment. Lighting has multiple roles: assisting the Issue: 395 features 17 narrative, lighting the performers, helping build the drama and razzamatazz, as well as meeting the conceptual goals of several different choreographers involved in curating this extravaganza of colour, movement and energy. Spacing and positioning of lighting was critically important in being able to cover the large stage areas up to 40 metres wide and this had to be carefully balanced with choreography space and other technical elements like PA, moving side screens and set trucks, plus everything had to look fabulous from all 1,899 seats! The TetraX matrix was conceived as a modern take on the wall-of-light effect, bringing a contemporary studio look to a classic revue environment on a monumental scale. “I wanted to have lighting effects on all sides, just as you would with a camera environment,” explained Chris, adding that he also needed something that would work with the transparent screen in and out. He needed a fixture versatile enough to create beams, blinder and wash effects, plus an array of kinetic shimmering and sparkling texturing from a front-mounted position at the back of the space and the TetraX ticked all the boxes. As Grand Show creative planning starts around two years in advance, Chris had the idea of using TetraXs and then the chance to experiment with the fixtures on a club tour with German pop singer / songwriter Leony, featuring four columns of TetraXs. He was delighted with the results and confident that a super- sized version would have the requisite ‘wow factors’ for Blinded by Delight. It was then down to the ingenuity and skills of Thomas’s team at Palast Berlin to create the infrastructure on which to fly the 75 TetraXs. They are rigged to five moving frames that can fly in and out on special winches, changing the matrix configuration and they can also be moved off stage. “They did a brilliant job,” notes Chris. When the lights are on, the frames are nearly invisible, so this giant wall of illuminative movement looks as if it is magically suspended in thin air. The Tetra2s are rigged around the edges of the side screens and move manually with these objects. “I really wanted to accentuate the verticality of the set,” noted Chris, adding, “from these positions, the Tetra2 battens provide quality effects for the audience sitting at the sides.” Chris’s Team included lighting programmer and longtime collaborator Matthias Schöffmann. Andreas Schindler was also on site to program video, which is triggered via the lighting console. They had an eight- week period on site to build and refine the Grand Show before a glittering premiere revealed the fabulous world of Blinded by Delight during the first week of October. photos: Louise SticklandJanuary 2026 18 features From Intimate Clubs to Wembley Glory with Sam Ryder and Sennheiser Spectera When British singer/songwriter Sam Ryder embarked on his Road to Wembley tour in October 2025, the journey took him from the intimate corners of small clubs to the iconic expanse of Wembley Arena: a lifelong dream fulfilled. For monitor engineer Jamie Hickey, the tour presented a unique opportunity to test Sennheiser’s Spectera wideband wireless ecosystem in the most demanding and diverse environments imaginable. The result? A resounding validation of the system’s versatility, reliability and sonic excellence across every venue on the tour. Sam Ryder captured hearts across Europe with his second-place finish at Eurovision 2022, bringing the UK its best result in decades. Since then, the TikTok sensation- turned-mainstream success has continued to build a devoted following with his powerful vocals and authentic stage presence. Road to Wembley coincided with the release of his second album, ‘Heartland’, released on 17 th October 2025. The tour was designed as a series of intimate shows leading up to a much larger performance at OVO Arena Wembley on 6 th November. Ryder hand-picked venues with sentimental value from his early career, including The Cavern Club in Liverpool, Cavern in Exeter, Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff and King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow. Every venue hosted both a matinee and an evening show, creating an intensive schedule. Jamie Hickey, one half of the duo behind Production & Touring Ltd, brought 20 years of monitor engineering experience to his first tour with Sam Ryder. “It’s something I’ve always loved,” says Hickey of his job. “The thing I really enjoy is the challenge of getting into somebody’s head space and trying to understand what they want.” Hickey’s business partner, Mike Taylor, who served as production manager, led the charge to have Spectera go out on the Road to Wembley tour. As a long-time Sennheiser user with experience on the 2000 series IEM and evolution G4 wireless systems, Hickey had been eagerly anticipating the arrival of Spectera. “It was a natural progression to move to Spectera as soon as it was available,” he explains. “I arranged with Peter Craig [Sennheiser relations management] to be part of the Spectera Pioneer Programme and get it out there and start using it. Not just in the obvious settings – the big arena shows – but to find out what it’s like under the spotlights of a small venue. And this Sam Ryder tour was an ideal scenario for that, because it culminated in a show at Wembley. But the run up to it was lots of small little gigs, 300 capacity venues and we had all the same equipment for those shows that we had for the arena show.” For Hickey, the technical advantages of the system were clear from the start. “The first thing you notice when using Spectera is the complete lack of background hiss; the traditional noise floor is a thing of the past,” he explains. “As soon as you start passing audio through the system, you can’t help but be impressed by the frequency response and stereo image. There’s so much space. Reverbs, keyboards, stereo guitar patches all come alive in a way that was previously impossible in live monitoring. It’s true stereo in IEMs for the first time and it sounds really, really good.” In total one Spectera Base Station, four DAD antennas operating on two 8MHz TV channels and 18 SEK bodypacks were deployed for the tour, a compact set-up that would prove remarkably powerful across wildly different performance spaces. The system was complemented by a range of Sennheiser microphones including SKM 6000 handheld transmitters, MD 421 Kompakts, e 904s, e 935s and MKH 416s. Smaller venues present unique challenges that often go unnoticed in purpose-built modern facilities. “There isn’t necessarily a wing at stage left for you to put your monitor desk and all your equipment,” Hickey explains. “You have to poke things around corners and get under archways and brickwork, and old infrastructure. I love the idea of us having this technology that is so powerful, so reliable and sounds so good. And it doesn’t necessarily all have to be the big flagship events, which it obviously does incredibly well, too.” This philosophy: testing Spectera in the trenches of working venues rather than just showcase environments, provided invaluable real-world validation of the system’s capabilities. By the time the tour reached Wembley Arena, Hickey was running 13 stereo IEM mixes, with six beltpacks additionally used Issue: 395 features 19 as transmitters for nine musicians, one production manager, one playback tech, as well as a management mix and a guest mix. “It was a pretty good test of capacity,” Hickey recalls. “I was concerned that we weren’t going to get it all into one unit by the time we got to that many mixes. I was also a bit concerned that we would run out of DSP to be able to do that. But it worked out really well; it was full but there was still room for more. Wembley was a proper deployment.” The Wembley performance also showcased Spectera’s extraordinary coverage capabilities in ways that genuinely surprised even a veteran engineer like Hickey. “It was the best coverage I’ve ever heard in my life from anything, anywhere,” he states. “Wembley Arena is a somewhat older building and the dressing rooms are sort of buried in concrete. I was able to line check the four-piece string section whilst they were in their dressing room, which was maybe 80 metres away. It just blew my mind.” Spectera’s bidirectional capability – the ability for each SEK bodypack to handle both microphone transmission and in-ear monitor reception simultaneously – proved transformative for the production. “This is a game changer,” says Hickey. “We have one ecosystem that is mics and in-ears. It’s one unit. That’s crazy. And the latency is so usable. The flexibility to be able to go from 0.7 up to 2.7 and to deploy your DSP, your available RF spectrum … It’s just wild.” This flexibility was put to the test during a particularly meaningful moment at Wembley when Kelvin Pratt, Sam Ryder’s childhood guitar teacher, joined Ryder on stage to play a guitar solo on the song ‘Go Steady’. Pratt’s bodypack was set to transceive, with his guitar signal going to the line system via Dante, then amped through Pratt’s Kemper profiling amp, before going back out to the line system, all using Spectera’s ultra-low latency mode. Hickey admits he was initially concerned about the number of paths that signal had to travel through. “It was not a problem. Not an issue at all,” he confirms. “A complete game-changer. The Dante implementation is fantastic and it’s a really good addition to the I/O side of it.” The response from Sam Ryder’s band and musicians was overwhelmingly positive from the first moment they experienced the system. “They were really excited,” Hickey recalls. “Most musicians are geeks at heart, really and immediately they were quite excited. Just the tactile feel and the look of it says, ‘oh, this is new’. If a product is not delivering a wow factor, or doesn’t offer a noticeable change, nobody can be bothered to think about it. But with Spectera, the sonic character, the delivery, it was instantly noticeable to even the most uninterested person.” The string section – players of the most traditional instruments in the ensemble – were particularly impressed. “The string players were on side straight away,” notes Hickey. “One of the comments I got was that they could hear absolutely perfectly. They were a bit terrified about playing at Wembley and what that was gonna be like, but they were all super-positive. Everybody was so happy to the point that the novelty of the technology wore off quite quickly because it was implemented so well.” Sennheiser’s support throughout the deployment proved instrumental to the tour’s success, demonstrating the value of strong industry partnerships. Hickey credits Peter Craig from Sennheiser’s relationship management with facilitating his involvement in the Pioneer Programme and getting the system tour-ready. “Peter’s been great throughout this whole process. It’s that kind of support that makes all the difference when you’re trying something new,” says Hickey. Hickey also worked extensively with Marcus Blight, technical application engineer at Sennheiser, who provided crucial technical guidance throughout the tour. “I had questions about RF coverage and implementation and Marcus was very cool with that,” says Hickey. “He was very quick to respond and give really good, detailed information about it all. He was fully on board. The support from Sennheiser has been fantastic.” Looking back on the tour, Hickey’s enthusiasm for Spectera is unequivocal. “We had absolutely no problem putting it through its paces, working either on a single RF channel or two RF channels. We’ve used it with Dante, we’ve used it with MADI. And it can only get better, based on all the conversations that we’ve had at Decibel Dialogues. There’s so much work going on behind the scenes and I can’t wait to use it more on everything. It really is, in the most sincere sense of the word, a total revolution.” photos: Jenny Hodge & Jack RobinsonNext >