With millions of fans all over the world tuning in to watch the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, there was an obvious need for LED screens – not just at the tournament but at popular viewing venues all over the globe. NovaStar now been involved in three consecutive World Cups, with its LED screens featuring in eight stadiums at the 2022 tournament. Off the pitch, the company also supported many other projects with its LED powering a range of World Cup viewing venues in locations including Dubai, Morocco, and Lebanon. A popular choice for integrators is the NovaStar H…
Author: Peter Iantorno
Jens Gießler and Felix Erdmann have acquired the Middle East and System Integration subsidiaries of Neumann&Müller (N&M), which will now operate as independent companies under the BeWunder brand. As part of the acquisition, the two business units will be rebranded, with Systems Integration now known as Spatial Experiences, and Event Technology taking the moniker of Event Production. The development comes at an opportune moment for the Managing Directors, who spent a combined 35 years with N&M before finally deciding the time was right to push their own agenda in the Middle East. “We are really invested in the Middle East…
The first Sennheiser EW-DX devices are shipping in EMEA, North America, Japan, and Singapore. Available products include the EW-DX EM 2 two-channel receiver, the handheld transmitter – with or without programmable mute switch – and the bodypack transmitter. The latter also comes in two versions, either with a special three-pin mic connector or a 3.5 mm (1/8”) jack for mics or instrument cables. “This awesome system combines pro features and ease of use in well-designed, rugged housings. We’re happy to see it hitting the market,” commented Benny Franke, product manager at Sennheiser. “EW-DX is a more than worthy technological successor…
Creative Technology (CT) Middle East has made a major investment in Robe moving lights with the purchase of FORTES and LEDBeam 350s, which join the company’s busy and expanding rental fleet at their Dubai HQ, servicing projects across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. Sam Connolly, Head of Lighting for CTME, commented: “The new fixtures are a great asset to CT’s growing fleet and will be soon heading to Doha for the 2022 FIFA World Cup to join another 200 Robe fixtures on various show-stopping events across the country.” Connolly has always been a Robe fan, so when CT was…
Saudi Arabian festival of light and art Noor Riyadh returned in November with its biggest ever programme comprising over 190 artworks and 500 activities. One of the annual festival’s most eye-catching and ambitious artworks was AXION – an otherworldly temporary lighting installation devised in the mind of WHITEVoid’s Christopher Bauder. Based around one of Bauder’s previous creations, Stalactite, which was created mainly for indoor settings, AXION is an enormous temporary light show that has been created specifically to be displayed in the desert. With its sprawling array of light tubes, mirror balls and moving lights, it looks like a giant…
Creative Technology was at the iconic Louvre Abu Dhabi earlier this month for the launch event for Pure Health, one of the largest integrated healthcare platforms in the UAE. The company unveiled the future of healthcare in its new vision, brand identity and brand promise at an immersive ceremony at the Louvre Abu Dhabi, in the presence of high-level dignitaries, officials, and prominent personalities from leading entities across the government and private sector. CT delivered an immersive outdoor projection using 26 Panasonic projectors across the main transition areas of the exhibition with content control & playback, alongside a bespoke…
Looking around the cavernous 40,000 sq ft warehouse at Maestra’s Dubai headquarters, it’s hard to imagine the start-up AV rental business the company started life as back in 2013. Almost a decade on, Maestra has expanded into a multidisciplined supplier of not just audio-visual equipment, but also carpentry and joinery, CNC machining, paint finishing, metalwork and pretty much any other discipline that lends itself to producing turnkey events solutions for some of the world’s leading luxury brands. “I saw a gap in the market – particularly for luxury projects, where clients were looking for certain types of AV equipment…
When it comes to industry-wide issues, the live event sector can be broadly split into two types of people: those who get their heads down and make the best of a bad situation, and those who don’t accept the status quo, and do something to fix the problem – Nadim Jamal and Murad Shisha fall very much into the latter group. As former UAE-based freelancers, the pair experienced a genuine shortage of representation within the local community and, sensing an opportunity to build something that would transform the regional landscape, took matters into their own hands, creating event solution agency,…
With more than 20 years of Middle East industry experience, working with some of the biggest stars in the music and entertainment business, Thomas Ovesen is more qualified than most when it comes to deciding what will sell in the region. After a stint in Saudi Arabia working with the Diriyah Gate Development Authority, Ovesen marked his return to Dubai with a sell-out show from 50 Cent at Coca-Cola Arena. With the events season now in full swing, the T.O.P Entertainment Founder took some time out from his busy schedule to sit down with TPMEA. Here, he discusses everything…
It’s been 18 months since we last spoke to Coca-Cola Arena’s General Manager, Mark Jan Kar, and it’s fair to say that the industry has changed significantly for the better since then. Back in mid-2021, the then newly installed GM told TPMEA – over Zoom, of course – about his plans to reconnect with the industry and lay the foundations for the return of live events following the COVID-19 pandemic. Skip to the present day, and as we’re led through the bowels of the Coca-Cola Arena and up into one of the venue’s plush corporate boxes for our scheduled interview,…
Fresh from an extensive UK arena tour in support of his latest album, Gold Rush Kid, George Ezra headed east for the Australia and New Zealand leg of his tour, squeezing in a one-night-only performance at Dubai’s Coca-Cola Arena on the way. Accompanied by a seven-piece band and backed as ever by his loyal touring crew, Ezra put on a typically slick, upbeat performance – much to the delight of the adoring UAE audience, who last saw the artist at his sell-out 2019 show at Dubai World Trade Centre. With the touring party spending just over 24 hours in Dubai…
Since it began lighting up Central Park’s Great Lawn in 2012, Global Citizen Festival has become the world’s longest-running global campaign calling for an end to extreme poverty that unites millions of voices, amplified by some of the world’s biggest artists, demanding world leaders take immediate action. To celebrate its 10th anniversary, the iconic festival once again put on two stages in international cultural capitals of New York City and Accra, Ghana, with both shows broadcast and streamed live across the globe. While the New York production is an ever-present fixture on the Global Citizen calendar, this year was the…
