CHICAGO – Zach Scott doesn’t consider himself a writer, but before he does anything with programming language at the start of the design process, he turns to the English language and uses words to put together sentences about the show he is about to light.

“It’s the first thing I do right after I listen to the music that’s going to be in my client’s set,” Scott explained. “I write a paragraph for each song that captures the vibe I want to create with my lighting. This includes the emotional tone and rough look for every song. Doing this helps me focus my visual ideas and it helps me avoid repeating myself.”

Following this formula when designing for the recently concluded 20th anniversary tour by pop punk icons The Academy Is, Scott created a show that moves with the fluid grace of a page turning novel. Helping him author this powerful story was the ChamSys MagicQ MQ250M Stadium Console with a MagicQ MQ80 coupled with an extra wing as the tracking backup.

“The show is fully pre-programmed — each song lives on its own page with a main cue stack holding the core information,” Scott explained his process. “I also use a handful of bump buttons for kick/snare hits and big moments that need precise manual timing. The band doesn’t run tracks, so everything is triggered live without timecode. It’s been a refreshing change of pace from the heavily timecoded environments I’m usually in.”

“I programmed and pre-visualized the show using Capture 2025. I take the Capture file on the road with me so I can plug my console into my laptop and update or build new material whenever the band adds a song,” continued Scott. “The MagicQ 250M was great interfacing with the software. My programming and pre-viz setup stays consistent in my studio, which lets me work comfortably during pre-production. Once the show is dialed in, I simply save the file over to the touring consoles and hit the ground running.”

The flexible per-universe network protocol options were critically important to Scott on this tour. A pair of other features were equally significant: Group Cues, and the compact size of his ChamSys desk. He elaborated on how these attributes worked to make his life easier on the road.

“Being able to assign different network protocols on a per-universe basis is huge in today’s touring world,” he said. “My floor package runs fully on sACN, but some venues still rely on Art-Net. Having per-universe control means I can adapt instantly without reconfiguring my entire rig. As for the Group Cues, they are a game changer for speed and accuracy when integrating house systems. Instead of relying on clone/morph workflows, I simply build new house-rig groups and copy data from my virtual flown groups straight into them. It’s fast, clean, and consistent.”

On the subject of console size, Scott noted that in some venues on this tour, the FOH positions usually had their own in-house consoles, which left touring crews with minimal space. “We don’t always have the ability to setup in front of their house equipment, so having a small footprint becomes key in these situations,” he explained.

With his ChamSys console saving him time and freeing him from other concerns, Scott was able to focus more energy on the creative side of his show, which featured slow emotional intros transitioning into high-energy choruses. He also credits the team at JRLX and their “immaculate prep work” with helping to make the tour go smoothly.

Looking back at his show, Scott noted: “For the most part the verses stayed moody and toned-down, while the pre-chorus opened up into wide, fanned out looks, with strobe bursts on the downbeats of the chorus. Aerial looks formed the backbone of this show. Since the band hasn’t toured in many years, most of the audience consists of longtime fans who already know the music inside and out. I wanted to create a deeply immersive, atmospheric environment that amplified that nostalgia. My goal was for the visuals to hit just as hard for someone in the back of the room as they did for the fans right up front.”

MYTILENE, GREECE – Warm, enchanting memoires washed over fans as naturally as the summer breeze along the Aegean coast on August 9 when Petro Iakovidis performed at the Oinoforos Estate’s music festival. “It was “the soundtrack of our hearts,” wrote one Greek music critic.

No one at the festival would disagree, neither would any of the fans who packed every other venue on the iconic singer and multi-instrumentalist’s 2025 summer tour. Flowing in harmony with this “soundtrack,” was a deeply evocative and ever-changing lighting design by Konstantinos Ntovas that was run on a ChamSys MagicQ MQ250M Stadium Console.

A lighting narrative as much as a design, Konstantinos’ show artfully blended lighting and video to change the apparent height and depth of the stage. By doing this, along with altering lighting angles and varying the levels of brightness and darkness, the longtime ChamSys-user created a variety of looks to match the mood of the music.

“My intention was to enrich the overall setup by adding LED screen columns and playing with both the height and the depth of the stage,” said Konstantinos, who configured his stage on three levels that had half-meter columns varying in height (1.6, 1.8 and 2 meters).

“Each of my columns was positioned slightly in front of the other, creating a layered effect,” he explained. “The content that ran on them was quite dynamic — things like descending lighting effects, particle lines, and other visuals that complemented the energy of the show and ensured that we had a wide variety of looks.

“As for the colors, I selected them based on the music itself and the emotions it evokes in me,” continued Konstantinos. “My goal is to translate those feelings into a visual experience, so that the audience not only hears the music, but also feels it through the color palette and light.

Konstantinos controlled his show through ChamSys in combination with Art-Net and a media server. He noted that it was quick and easy to control his media server through his console’s dedicated media window.

“There were many features of the MQ250M that were essential,” he said. “The motorized faders, the save levels on them, and the top keypad with flash buttons were especially important,” he said. “However, I have to add that the small built-in monitor on the 250 really proved to be a huge help during the show. It provides great comfort — not only in terms of physical space on the console, but also in terms of workflow. The save level function is an invaluable feature of the Stadium series, and one I relied on heavily throughout the performance.”

Drawing on these and other features, Konstantinos was able to “give shape and imagery to the music and allowed the audience to see what they were hearing” And what they were hearing, was indeed a soundtrack of special moments in their lives.

Move Expands Company’s Leadership in Pixel and Video Control, Creates Unified Lighting, Pixel Mapping & Media Playback Solution.

SOUTHAMPTON, UK – ChamSys, a subsidiary of Chauvet & Sons LLC, has expanded its leadership in show control by acquiring the product and software portfolio of Arkaos SA, including MediaMaster, KlingNet and Grand VJ. The strategic move marks a major milestone in delivering a fully unified One Console. One Server. One Show. control solution.

ChamSys will release ChamSys MediaMaster 25, a major update to Arkaos MediaMaster 6 software, encompassing a new super-easy-to-use interface that can span multiple screens and flexible project workspaces — and features user-defined GDTF personalities. MediaMaster 25 will be complemented by a new range of powerful ChamSys MediaMaster Servers.

ChamSys MediaMaster 25 users will benefit from ChamSys’ 24/7 global support, expanded documentation, and training programs. Arkaos General Manager Tony De Prins, along with the longstanding Arkaos engineering team, will join the ChamSys group, ensuring uninterrupted support and continued innovation.

Current MediaMaster customers can continue using their existing licenses with no change or added costs. Future updates will provide a seamless integration path into the ChamSys ecosystem. Arkaos customers will be able to interface with MediaMaster and other Arkaos products via the ChamSys website.

“The acquisition strengthens ChamSys as the leading single-source solution for native lighting, pixel, and media control,” said Chris Kennedy, founder of ChamSys. “By unifying MediaMaster with ChamSys control systems, we are giving users seamless, powerful, and reliable control from a single platform, eliminating workflow complications and technical barriers.”

Seconding Kennedy’s optimism, De Prins recalled the “strong history” of collaboration between ChamSys and Arkaos, noting that both companies were key players in the groundbreaking CITP/MSEX open network protocol, which revolutionised the industry by allowing high level integration of lighting controllers, media servers, and visualisers, making it possible for applications to share video in real time, and display it on a lighting console or in a visualiser.

“Our team is going to be right at home being part of ChamSys,” said De Prins. “ChamSys has been a trusted partner for years. Joining forces will strengthen our efforts in a multitude of ways and result in very real benefits in modern production control. You can look forward to some very impressive things happening.”

LOS ANGELES – Volbeat frontman, Michael Paulson, kicked off the Kia Forum show on the band’s eagerly anticipated “Greatest Of All World Tours” by apologizing to the sellout crowd if his sore throat might affect his upcoming performance, but declared that he wouldn’t want to miss this show. Fans cheered wildly, admiring the pure grit that characterizes this red hot Danish band.

Paulson and his bandmates then broke out like runaway trains with a headbanging rendition of “The Devil’s Bleeding Crown,” followed by “Lola Montez,” sending the crowd into a frenzy and nearly blowing the 407-foot (124-meter) high roof of the big arena. No apologies necessary! The boys from Copenhagen delivered every ounce of intensity that their legion of fans has come to expect — and then some.

It’s been the same story at every stop along the way on the USA leg of their global tour, which began July 17th at Denver’s Ball Arena and ended August 22nd at the Credit Union One amphitheater outside Chicago. Matching the music at every ferocious note is a hard-driving Niller Bjerregaard lighting design powered by a ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M Stadium Console that calls forth images of metal’s roots.

Working with a rig supplied by Premier Global Production, Bjerregaard designed the show “as a tribute to the Classic Rock Show and Truss layout.” Discussing the creative process behind the design, he said: “It was actually similar to one of the first lighting rigs I designed 35 years ago in a smaller version with Par Cans Only for a band called Grobe in the mid-90s. The fixtures were hung in groups of three and are finger focused all the way. Ideally, we had a 40-foot trim on the tour, as it tied the rig and backdrop/stage set together in a perfect frame. The trusses itself was staggered in a star formation to give it depth and elevation without overlapping fixtures and looks.”

The Greatest Of All World Tours represents a milestone in the ascent of Volbeat in the US, as the band is playing larger venues. Bjerregaard is quick to credit his colleagues in helping him navigate the new waters. “PM Dennie Miller, and SM Dave Marcucci,” were tremendous helps,” he said. “I also was ever-appreciative for the work of rigger Ryan Riordan; LX crew chief Jerome Labonte; LX Tanja Arends; LX Cy Schumacher; Lx Luke Berry; LX Hunter Roney; PGP Lighting; TAIT ; and, of course, Volbeat and the entire crew.”

Bjerregaard notes his ChamSys Group Cue and Group layout windows were also critical in helping him achieve bold massive looks he was after as the tour moved from one amphitheater or arena to the next on the tour. “The effects I could do running across the fixtures because of the Group Grid Window were absolutely amazing and it took me no time to create complex special effects with movement – color – intensity, absolute without spending the time setting up the desk for that.”

The Remote Focus also helped him adjust to different FOH positions that he found himself in on the tour. “Really, this has to be one of my all-time favorite features –especially on this run,” he exclaimed. “In some of the bigger venues we were quite far from the stage and sometimes had difficulty getting a clear look at the stage floor. That’s when this was a lifesaver.”

Leaving ample room on stage for the band to move around and interact with fans, Bjerregaard delivered intense lighting action from overhead fixtures. He also created theatrical looks from well-timed and colorful side lighting.

In addition, he relied on intense color contrast to enhance the dramatic effect. This was beautifully evident during Paulson’s solo in “Devil Rages On,” when the singer is highlighted in full red. Then, as the song progressed the rig opened up with a slow-motion strobe, before moving into a huge ballyhoo moment.

Many fans in the USA saw Volbeat for the first time. Thanks to the band’s passionate performance and dramatic moments such as this one, it won’t be their last.

LONDON – Go online to any of the many websites that monitor how the English language is used (or abused), and you’ll invariably find “extravaganza” listed somewhere on the tally of the world’s most over-done words. And while the term might be bandied about a bit too often in our age of exaggeration, it works quite nicely when describing, the ever-popular Queen Extravaganza.

The world’s preeminent and “official” Queen tribute band, the only one organized and endorsed by Freddy Mercury’s surviving bandmates Brian May and Roger Taylor, this group of six gifted musicians puts on a show that is truly extravagant in every sense of the world.

This year’s tour by the band took on even more meaning, as they celebrated the 50th anniversary of Queen’s seminal “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Providing an appropriately lavish setting for this celebratory tour was brilliant production created by Rick Lipson of Stu Fish, who designed the set, and lighting designer Rob Sinclair.

Ensuring that the concert production continued to deliver dynamic and colourful looks on a consistent basis as the tour made its way from one sold out venue to the next was Jason Hyne, who ran the one-track time-coded show (with some cue stacks), on his own ChamSys MagicQ MQ250M Stadium Console. The flexibility of that console was invaluable in helping him scale the show to different venues.

“We worked at a lot of different sized venues on the tour, which is always a challenge, but it keeps it interesting when you need to make the show fit in bigger and smaller spaces,” said Hyne. “Every show is definitely not the same, but the band is lovely to work with — they have been playing together for a few years, so things click well.”

Making life easier for Hyne on the tour, were not only the affable band, but also the talents of his collaborators, such as Steve McCracken of Mac Events who ran in the show at Cardiff, and the powerful, flexibility of his MQ250M.

“The MQ250M is the perfect size for many of the smaller booths we encountered on this tour, yet it has the capacity to handle a show of this size,” Hyne said of the console, which can control up to 128 universes without any additional processing equipment. “It’s a solid console that works extremely well for many of my tours. Its 10 backlit playback encoders with executors, it gives you plenty of programming options.”

Since video played such a critical role in this tour (historic footage of Queen accented the set design throughout the concert), the seamless interface of this ChamSys console with Resolume was appreciated by Hyne.

“We easily triggered Resolume with the MQ250M,” he said. “The simplicity and user-friendly programming make it quite simple to integrate video. The use of the video added production value on this tour. We featured quite a few nostalgic photos of the band and visuals thrown in, playing back original music video content.”

Matching the intensity of his client’s music note-for-note, Hyne utilized a “par can look” 3×3 grid behind the screen to transform the stage with strong, saturated colours. He also relied on ample amounts of back lighting and silhouetting to accent the dramatic dimensions of the show, while keeping the focus on the key member of the band.

His versatile MagicQ MQ250M, which does things like support a wide variety of different fader modes enabling the playback section to be used in a range of applications, was instrumental in helping him run this visually rich show — a show that can aptly (and without exaggeration!) be called an “extravaganza.”

ChamSys lighting consoles were once again a prominent presence at Glastonbury Festival 2025, delivering spectacular light shows across many of the event’s most iconic stages. This year also saw the live debut of several new ChamSys hardware and software features, giving lighting designers and programmers a first-hand look at the latest tools in action—tested in one of the world’s most demanding live environments.

It wasn’t just hardware making its mark—new software features also took centre stage. Among the highlights was a live preview of MagicQ’s upcoming NDI integration, demonstrated on the Levels Stage in Silver Hayes, designed by James Newmarch of Refrakt Labs and supplied by SR Productions. The integration allowed real-time video feeds to be mapped directly into MagicQ’s pixel mapper. The house MQ500M+, with native output of 400 universes, handled the setup effortlessly throughout the festival. MagicQ’s NDI integration is scheduled for public release later this month.

On the touring side of Glastonbury, Group-Based Programming emerged as a standout MagicQ feature. For Brian Kelly, who ran the lighting for Caribou on an MQ250M supplied by Steve ‘Mac’ McCracken, it simplified adapting to the SWG Events house rig.

“MagicQ’s Group-Based Programming is the feature for programming,” said Kelly. “Patch in the house rig, update Groups and Palettes—and you’re done! No more worrying about fixture counts changing show to show. Cues and FX just work.”

Alongside the extensive use of MagicQ consoles, ChamSys GeNetix networking products were also deployed across the site. Since launching in 2024, the GeNetix range has rapidly become a go-to solution for robust data distribution in both touring and festival settings. In Silver Hayes, the GN4IP provided a weatherproof, distributed node setup ideally suited to Glastonbury’s unpredictable conditions—from heavy rain to dusty fields. Elsewhere, rack-mounted GeNetix nodes ensured reliable network infrastructure across areas including the Unfairground, Theatre & Circus, and Shangri-La.

A familiar sight across the site, ChamSys MagicQ Stadium consoles were heavily relied upon by both touring LDs and house crews. The 400-universe MQ500M+ was in action on numerous stages, used both as a house desk and a touring console. On the Woodsies Stage, Ed Warren lit performances for Four Tet and Lola Young using consoles supplied by LCR, while Joe Beardsmore brought his own Stadium console to deliver an immersive lighting design for Tom Odell, with the stage supported by Siyan and floor package by Coloursound Experiment. At The Park Stage, David Rossselected the MQ500M+ for Beth Gibbons’ atmospheric set.

MQ500M+ consoles also featured as house desks across a wide range of locations — from the Circus Big Top, where James Loudon crafted dynamic looks for aerial performers, to the Flying Bus Stage operated by GLX Lighting, and both the Lonely Hearts and Levels stages in Silver Hayes, supplied by SR Productions.

The compact yet powerful MQ250M Stadium consoles were also widely used. In addition to the Pyramid Stage opening ceremony, the MQ250M returned for the Kaiser Chiefs’ set with LD Jason Hyne, and was used by David Howard for multiple shows including Gary Numan on The Park Stage, Sam Ryder’s secret set at The Wishing Well, and Dhani Harrison on the Acoustic Stage. Coloursound Experiment deployed an MQ250M at the Glade Stage with Tom Whiteon controls, while additional MQ250Ms were found at Glasto Latino with Mass Affect Lighting, and The Hive Stagewith Luke Adams Lighting.

ChamSys Compact consoles also delivered impressive results in more intimate or unconventional spaces, including Carhenge (Ed Warren and Will Thomas), Glebeland (Enlightened), Left Field (SWG), and The Blind Tiger (GLX). In Shangri-La – Lore, Wolf Events deployed a Compact console, while Shangri-La – Azaadi was powered by a MagicQ MQ50 Compact Console.

While each stage brought its own technical challenges, ChamSys consoles once again proved their reliability, flexibility, and innovation in live control. Whether dealing with unpredictable weather, complex networking demands, or fast-moving show schedules, the ChamSys ecosystem delivered—helping to bring unforgettable shows to life at one of the world’s most legendary festivals.

PILTON, UK  “Glastonbury can be brutal. Glastonbury can be magical.” So said Gibson guitar maestro Noel Gallagher, who performed there multiple times over the past three decades. The 2025 edition of the iconic festival was (as usual) a bit of both but mostly leaning to the magical!

An impressive collection of ChamSys consoles was there, rugged and reliable enough to handle all the demands (brutal or not) made by a five-day festival spread across 900 acres, yet powerful, flexible and intuitive enough to help inspired LDs conjure up some sublime moments.

At the head of the pack was the MagicQ MQ500M+ Stadium Console, flagship of the ChamSys line that directly supports 400 universes without external processors and offers fully motorized faders and encoders with 42 playbacks.  Its potent features were put to excellent use at the Woodsies Stage where Ed Warren powered shows by Four Tet and Lola Young with consoles supplied by LCR. Joe Beardsmore brought one of his own Stadium consoles to cast an immersive mood for Tom Odell at the stage provided by Siyan and a floor package from Coloursound Experiment.  

Over at the Circus Big Top, James Loudon made some high-flying performances even more spectacular with a dynamic lighting design that he ran on an MQ500M+ (along with a GeNetix GN5) from Fineline. Silver Hayes performances went smoothly at Lonely Hearts thanks to a production supplied and put together by SR Productions who provided an MQ500M+ for LD Freddy Venediger.  Silver Hayes also shined with help from the MQ500M+ (along with GeNetix GN10 and GN4IP) at The Levels Stage and a design by James Newmarch of Refrakt Labs.

Meanwhile at the always-fun Flying Bus Stage, the show clicked to perfection, powered by an MQ500M along with GeNetix GN10 from GLX. Lighting for Portishead legend Beth Gibbons’ performance at The Park Stage was smooth as silk, courtesy of Dave Ross and his MQ500M from SWG.  

Also at the Park Stage, Steve Mccracken brought his ChamSys MagicQ MQ250M Stadium console and LD Brian Kelly kept things perking for the Caribou set. David Howard cast an evocative mood over the Park Stage for Gary Numan’s show with a MagicQ MQ250M. Howard also relied on the versatile MQ250M to conjure up looks for a variety of shows, including the popular secret set by Sam Ryder. Since three’s a charm, Howard used the MQ250M again at the Fineline supplied Acoustic Stage for Dhani Harrison.

Will Thomas brought his MagicQ MQ250M (and new Compact Wing) to run his stellar lightshow with a house rig supplied by NEG Earth that transformed the circus opening at the Pyramid arena. At the Glade stage, Tom White had his lighting move to the rhythm of dance music by tapping into the performance features of an MQ250M supplied by Coloursound. Over at Glasto Latino the tempo was more Latin style, but the lighting was just as in step, the result of the MQ250M, along with the work of Mass Affect Lighting and Enlightened. At The Hive Stage, the MQ250M moved lighting to the beat of emerging talent thanks to Luke Adams Lighting.

Carhenge is always fun for LDs and fans alike. This year, the good times rolled smoothly thanks to the ChamSys MagicQ MQ70 Compact Console on hand, which was put to good use by the likes of Ed Warren and Will Thomas.  

The powerful Compact consoles also yielded big results at Glebeland (from Enlightened), Left Field (SWG), and The Blind Tiger (GLX), as well as Shangri-La – Lore (Wolf Events). Shangri-La – Azaadi also was enhanced by ChamSys, as a MagicQ MQ50 Compact Console did the trick.

True,  the demands made at all these stages were real (but hardly brutal), the resultant magic created with reliable, feature-rich ChamSys consoles was something special indeed. 

Ljubljana, Slovenia – Making a “simple wall of light,” uncluttered by any scenic pieces or barriers, and not disrupted by any restrictions has been a long-held dream of Crt Birsa. “It was on my wish list,” said the cofounder of Blackout Lighting Design “I’ve always wanted to create a simple wall of light, very populated, mathematical, and clean – That’s it!”

Birsa got the opportunity to create such a wall when he lit EMA 2025 , the Slovenian national Eurovision pre-selection event, which is held at Studio 1 of Slovenian National Television in Ljubljana. The results speak for themselves. Working with his fellow Blackout designer Anze Trstenjak, and frequent collaborator, set designer Greta Godnic, he created a 3D light wall that actually acts more like a window – a window that opens the imagination to unlimited vistas of mind bending shapes, light angles and color combinations, all while supporting the performances of the Eurovision contestants.

Although Birsa’s “simple wall” flowed seamlessly while delivering breathtaking looks, controlling it was a complex task, one he handled skillfully with help from his ChamSys MagicQ MQ250M Stadium Console, MagicQ Stadium Connect PC based programming interface, and a backup MQ70 console. Also helping Birsa was multicamera director, Tina Novak of RTV (Slovenia’s national TV network), and LED content creator VJ Andrej Intihar (“VJ Rasta”).

“When you have so many fixtures in play, you and your team have to be very careful in terms of geometry,” explained Birsa. “The key in making this kind of clean look is to take bigger groups of lighting fixtures and run them as if they were a single fixture. Of course, then you can make individual effects within these groups.”

Birsa explained how his ChamSys console helped him achieve this design vision in his 32-universe show, which involved 358 lighting fixtures, many of them on studio hoists, in a relatively small space. “To begin with, it’s very easy to use the network session with ChamSys. One of our universes contained key lights and show lights, so we had to share it, which worked out like a charm with ChamSys.”

“Also, updating the patch offset was very important for this show, since it had so many moving fixtures, and the ChamSys helped there as well,” continued Birsa. “The majority of the looks did not need a lot of position correcting after the patch offset was updated. The whole show was made in group-based programming. This made it clean, straightforward. Then, when it came to updating the show and replacing fixtures, we could do that very easily. The console made all the programming simpler, faster and more fun. This is very important, especially at high profile TV shows where you are usually time limited and changes have to be applied very quickly.”

Birsa notes that EMA 2025 was probably the biggest set ever run at TV Slovenia 1 Studio. His “wall of light,” which was made up of 200 fixtures was at the back of the studio. There was also a matrix of spots and washes mounted on ladders lined on the side with LED strips, and a line of strobes at the bottom.

“All the other fixtures, which were on the studio hoist, just followed this architecture,” said Birsa. “So ,when a certain pattern was in play, we could add a lot of fixtures without making it look crowded. But the biggest challenge in this was not to look too bright with such big amount of lights in such a small space. So, I had to be very careful in programming, which made me glad to have ChamSys.”

LONDON – Stepping back from the whirlwind of one’s usual life isn’t just a chance to “get away from it all.” For some, most notably creative types, it’s also about much more. Rather than an act of “getting away,” they view this respite as an opportunity to move toward something, namely a fresh, new source of inspiration!

Mumford and Sons embarked on such a journey a few years ago when they withdrew from their self-described “almost nonstop touring schedule” to channel a new more organic and personal wellspring of creative energy. Ultimately, this led the iconic band to record Rushmere, their first album since 2018.

“Because we’re no longer as rushed as we used to be, the creativity of Rushmere comes from us carving out more space for our best artistic selves,” Marcus Mumford told an interviewer after the critically acclaimed album was released in March and instantly reached the top of the charts.

Mumford and Son’s longtime lighting designer, Ed Warren reflected this mood in his work for the band’s “Tour Before The Tour,” a limited run of shows at mid-sized venues before their 32-city North American arena-amphitheater tour scheduled for this summer.

Like the band’s new creative outlook, Warren’s lightshow was designed to give the heartfelt emotions behind the music, a chance to breathe and flourish, unencumbered by extraneous things. Video walls were not to be seen on this tour’s set, neither were an abundance of fixtures on the stage deck.

“We decided against video to keep the shows warmer, more intimate and more like the ‘good old days,’” said Warren. “For the same reason, we also kept the stage uncluttered.”

His set may have been simple, but Warren was able to use his lights to weave a deeply textured and engaging web of emotions in support of his client’s music during the 80-minute long show. Helping him along the way from venue to venue through a variety of different house rigs was his versatile ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M Stadium console.

“The Group Cues feature in my MQ500M was very helpful, since we were presented with a different house rig every show, as the tour moved through the UK, USA, and Australia,” said Warren. “Having my cues, programming and effects all adapt seamlessly to the different variations of fixtures and fixture amounts saved a lot of hassle.

“Also, the Pan and Tilt Offset was also very useful for the same reason,” he continued. “With every show, more often than not, I only needed need to update a single position. Since my ChamSys adjusted every other position for me automatically.”

Warren programmed his show at home before the start of the tour, which had lighting supplied by three different vendors (Neg Earth in the UK, Solotech in the USA, and Chameleon in Australia.) When programming, he found the Timeline feature to be an “incredible” time- saver.

“Having the audio loading and skipping along with each cue was great,” explained Warren. “I programmed every show using internal timecode, even though the show itself is not timecoded.”

This summer when Mumford and Sons embarks on their tour, the venues will be larger than the ones played in during the Tour Before The Tour, but one thing is certain, the music and the production will glow with the same genuine authenticity nourished by the band’s journey of self-discovery.

OBERHAUSEN, GERMANY – What a way to end things! Godsmack has just about finished rocking the historic Turbinenhalle April 12th on the final stop of their 14-date European tour, when front man Sully Erna went into an intense encore singalong rendition of “I Stand Alone.”

It was one of many raucous crowd-frenzied moments on the American metal giants’ 10-city EU run, and lighting designer Niller Bjerregaard was there for every impromptu onstage antic and growling guitar riff. For an inveterate busker like him, it was a FOH dream come true; and the highly regarded LD from Denmark played it to perfection with his ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M Stadium Console.

”Godsmack is a LIVE BAND, so no timecode or prerecording,” said Bjerregaard. ”All cues are executed by hand. I made a Cuelist for each song — some songs were very detailed with 60 cues. On the side, I had bump buttons on my ChamSys with extra effects like Strobes, Fly Outs, Color Bumps, Dim Chases and Gobo Looks. The guys also played a cover song, which I busked by hand. Very busy — and I must admit, I was tired after the show. It called for full concentration from the get-go. But of course, it was also very satisfying to go through a show with such intensity and precision. I had some big transitions between the songs which linked with macros and crowd interaction looks.”

Working from the original Godsmack USA tour lighting design by the band’s LD Jeff Reils, Bjerregaard adapted the show for the EU, which often meant creating the band’s signature big looks with fewer fixtures. He accomplished this with some bold color combinations, the adroit use of side lighting, and very big blinder moments.

“Jeff Reils sent me a video taping of the last show they did on the USA run for inspiration, which was really helped me understand what the band was about live and how they look on stage,” said Bjerregaard. “From that I took the general idea and put my own twist on it. It was a very interesting way of doing things with the lights I had at my disposal and then make my own looks and transitions. Jeff was a big help and gave me a lot of support during the journey.”

Also helping Bjerregaard on the two-month tour were his colleagues Scott Tkachuk (FOH Sound – PM), Steve Wood (Tour Manager), Peter Da Cruz (Stage Manager), Paris Visone (Video Director), and Eoghan Tansey (Lighting Crew Chief). Then, of course, there were also the many helpful performance features of his console.

”The MagicQ MQ500M is ideal for this kind of tour,” said Bjerregaard. ”Not only is it a rugged console that supports a lot of universes, it’s also very intuitive for busking. In this tour, the Remote Focus feature was especially invaluable, since I had so many different highlight cues , especially for the Drum Gag, during which I had two different drum kits to focus on. It’s easier on stage, when you can sit on the drum position and see the lights. Also, the piano front light had to be very on point in this show, and again, sitting at the piano while focusing was perfect. Then, the Execute Page, where I put everything I needed to control , such has haze machines, extra positions of strobes, color bumps – you name it, they were perfect too.

”Another important feature was Macros, as it helped me with extra cues that weren’t on my primary cue list,” continued Bjerregaard, who acknowledges that there were times when he needed all the help he could get from his console to keep up with this fast-paced show.

Challenging on occasion? To be sure, but for someone born to busk, it was very well worth the effort.

LONDON – “Creativity Takes Courage,” proclaimed the great Henri Matisse — and few productions exemplify this more than Adolescence, the bold and emotionally charged four-part British mini-series that debuted on Netflix this March.

Created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham and directed by Philip Barantini, Adolescence has captivated global audiences not only with its intense subject matter—exploring the emotional fallout of school violence—but also with its daring approach to storytelling. Every episode was filmed in a single continuous take, a technical and artistic feat demanding extraordinary precision across all departments. 

The show quickly made history, becoming the first streaming-only series to top the UK’s weekly TV ratings. By April 2025, it was Netflix’s third most-watched series of all time, amassing over 124 million views worldwide.

Behind the scenes, the complex challenge of lighting a production filmed entirely in one take fell to Gaffer Max Hodgkinson and Director of Photography Matt Lewis, supported by desk operators Grum Leesmith, Olly Suckling, and Martin Winton. Helping them meet this challenge was the ChamSys MagicQ MQ250M Stadium console and GeNetix network distribution nodes. The ChamSys system enabled them to respond instantly to shifting scenes, angles, and moods—often while the camera moved in full 360-degree rotations.

An example of the ChamSys system’s flexibility could be found during a standout moment in episode three, during a tense conversation between 13-year-old Jamie, charged with murder, and his forensic psychologist. The scene required moody, shifting lighting to the teen’s emotional swings—without casting any shadows as the camera revolved around the room. “We programmed a variety of cues to simulate changes in natural lighting, like passing clouds,” explained Grum Leesmith. “This masked our lighting transitions and kept shadows off the actors and walls—crucial for maintaining the illusion of real-time storytelling.”

Another vital component was MagicQ’s remote control capabilities, which allowed the Desk Ops to move freely around the set during programming and rehearsals. Full console functionality on a tablet meant that even in a fast-moving environment, the team could maintain control without ever being tethered to a desk.

“Our job is to bring the creative vision of the DoP and Gaffer to life,” said Martin Winton. “With ChamSys, we have both granular control over complex rigs and the flexibility to adapt on the fly—something absolutely essential in a shoot like this.”

Other ChamSys features that played key roles in the project included graphical set visualization via output grids, Group Grids to apply delayed timings across fixture arrays, MagicQ automation functions that allowed cast and crew to trigger practical lighting cues, multi-console control with synchronized backup consoles, and remote system access using consoles in session via an internet link to multiple locations.

Reflecting on the landmark program, Tyler Lloyd, ChamSys BDM noted. “Adolescence has sparked debates in Parliament, disrupted regular radio and TV programming, and most importantly, opened parents’ eyes to the dangers young people face online—even in seemingly ‘safe’ spaces like home or school. To contribute to a production with such global and cultural impact is humbling. It also demonstrates how professional, robust, and adaptable ChamSys systems are for modern television and film production.”

SAN ANTONIO – As the lighting designer for the multi-platinum Grammy winners Diamond Rio, Willis Underhill has run his dynamic lightshows in a variety of venues from arenas and music halls to festivals. But it’s doubtful that any have been quite like the site of his most recent setting when he lit the band’s show at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo. 

First, there was the venue’s size. The 19,000-capacity Frost Bank Center, home of the San Antonio Spurs, is big by any measure. Like all massive spaces, it presents a challenge to any designer wanting to foster a sense of intimacy between the artist on stage and the audience. This is especially concerning when lighting a band like Diamond Rio that thrives on connecting to the crowd.  Complicating matters even further in this case —  the stage was in the center of the rodeo floor and Underhill’s FOH was two levels up in a corner of the arena.  Did we mention too that the 360-degree stage rotated throughout the show?!

“There were some challenges involved in creating the looks we wanted to create, given the size of the arena and the nature of the stage,” said Underhill, who nevertheless was able to power an engaging show that drew the band and their fans together, while making the large space inside the arena seem intimate. 

Underhill was able to meet the challenges the rodeo threw at him with help from LD Systems, which ran production for the event. “The LD Systems team was great,” he said. “They were very friendly and super helpful.”

Also helping to make Underhill’s show a success was his ChamSys Magicq250M Stadium Console. “I can’t tell you how valuable this console was to me in this setting,” he said. “For starters, the Group Cues feature allowed me to scale my show file for a large venue like this with minimal effort. On top of that there was one new feature I really used a lot in this project — Chunks. It allowed me to get more complex, deep looks from my position palettes. 

“Then there were The Timeline and MQ tracks,” continued Underhill. “They gave me absolute control of cue timing while adding depth and complexity with MQ tracks. Another good thing was that the ChamSys software really works well with Capture and CuePoints that I used for this show.”

Although most of his show was preprogrammed, Underhill also did do some busking at key moments, especially when he wanted to accent the band’s connection to the crowd. That connection, by the way, was front and center throughout Diamond Rio’s show even in this big arena, thanks to the skilled work of this LD on his console.

MARSEILLE, FRANCE – “We’ve Been Here Before.” It is indeed a well-chosen name for Chinese Man’s latest album and current tour, which in many respects is a 20-year retrospective of the iconic trio’s career and their profound influence on music — an influence that is felt well beyond their signature hip hop sound and their native France. 

Lighting and production designer Drichos is celebrating this story with all of its myriad cycles on the tour with a deeply evocative show that he is running on his ChamSys MagicQ MQ500M Stadium Console.

“The specifications and the Mood Board for this show were ambitious, as the last album and this tour is a look back on the musical journey of the group,” said Drichos, who was given carte blanche by the band when creating the design. “Our main question was what remains of our music from before? How has it evolved? And sometimes we realized we had the impression of déjà vu, of cycles, and a touch of nostalgia, always with the same musical involvement.”

But, as fans of Chinese Man are well aware, this album and tour are not only about where the group “has been,” but also about the expansive places they’re heading.  The three genre-busting artists from Région Sud thrive on renewal and discovery as much now as ever. 

This is evident in their current album, and it’s also beautifully plain to see in the show Drichos has created for their tour, a design marked by stunning contrasts of light and shadows, haunting silhouettes, phantasmatic images, and most dramatically, a gyroscope that underscores the dimension of time! 

“The idea of the Gyroscope immediately seemed obvious to me when starting this design,” said Drichos. “It represents the cycle, the verticality, the journey through time.– so I based the scenography and the lighting of the show on this gyroscope by Vectorizing my ‘3D ideas.’

“This very ambitious proposal immediately seduced the artists when we proposed it to them,” continued Drichos.  “We can even see pieces of gyroscope on the cover of the album. So, we launched the production of three gyroscopes of 2.5m wingspan. Two of the rings are motorized by gyroscope with infinite rotation and matrix LED cladding. Each gyroscope supped above each top of each top of each musician and motorized by nine winches.” 

Taking this vision a step further, Drichos conceptualized and created three platforms and desks for the musicians with pixel-mappable LED strips representing half gyroscopes.  He also had a see-through video screen arching around them to immerse the audience completely in their timeless universe. 

Drichos credits his team, (Electrician & Network Manager Mathieu Zangrillo and Technical Direction Creator Deadline, as well as Kellook who assembled the gyroscope.) with making the show work to perfection. He also had praise for his ChamSys desk.

“The choice of the console for this tour seemed obvious to me right away, so I opted for a MQ500M from ChamSys,” he said. “First of all, it is a robust console that can withstand and endure a whole tour. Secondly, the morphing possibility for the patch is essential on tour and at festivals to save time retyping shows with the available local lighting fixtures, as well as the Patch offset for the positions of the fixture. Moreover, the integrated 3D visualiser and media player as well as the user-friendly timecode made it a perfect fit for our endeavor. “

Given the number of universes demanded by his stunning gyroscopes, Drichos had another reason to select the MagicQ MQ500M — it supports up to 256 universes direct from the console. During the courses of this tour those universes are being put to good use creating a show, which, like the music it supports, take fans on a transcendent journey where the cycle of past, present and future are joined by music.