Transmission 2013

One of the Czech Republic’s biggest dance events, Transmission, will be celebrating its tenth edition at the end of November. Put together by United Music, which started in 2005 to bring bigger and better dance events to the country, the first year saw three editions of Transmission before it became an annual occasion. Once again it will be taking place in Prague’s O2 Arena where United Music also hosts another big dance event, Sensation, six months apart.

Transmission itself started in 2006 from a concept developed by the head of United Music (also Dutch). Sensation may be the slightly bigger event, selling about 13,500 tickets compared to Transmission’s 12,000, but it had already been started by another Dutch company who United Music bought the licence from to hold in the Czech Republic. Project manager for Trance Department (part of United Music), Martijn van den Berg, is also responsible for international PR and travel for Transmission, helping it attract visitors from over 55 countries.

“This year we have seven performing artists, six of whom will be making their debut at Transmission,” he says. “It is known more for the experience than purely the music as it’s a great venue with only one stage so everyone is into the same vibe. For most people 50% of the whole experience is probably not music.”

That appears to be because of the huge production values pumped into Transmission. Behind the DJ booth will be 1000m2 of lights, lazers and a lot of special effects, as well as fireworks, fire cannons, confetti and more; they don’t do things by halves. They will also be shipping over the Funktion-One sound system from the UK to use for its top quality sound.

Of the seven performing artists some of the big names include German DJ and Coldharbour label owner Markus Schulz, Bosnian DJ Arnej and Norwegian trance artist Ørjan Nilsen. With such an international line-up and tons of special effects it’s no surprise to learn a lot of planning goes into it.

“We rent the O2 Arena for a week to start setting up and it is expensive to put on which a lot of people don’t realise. It also takes a long time to organise which is why we only do two big events a year. The doors open at 8pm, with warm up DJs on from 8.30pm to 9.30pm and then the main event starts and runs until 6am.”

Every edition so far has had a different theme and this year it’s ‘The Machine of Transformation’, which will be brought to life not just through the music but added visuals as well. Award-winning Dutch video jockeys Vision Impossible are in charge of that side of things and if they live up to their reputation it should make for an enchanting experience.

“Visitors are taken on a journey through the night,” explains Martijn. “Vision Impossible make all the visuals for the event from the trailers to each individual entrance movie for all the DJs. It will start with the first DJ and stuff like Da Vinci’s drawings and move through to the modern age and future with some stages in between. If you put them all together they link up.”

Another highlight of the evening (and morning) Martijn points out is the trans-mix, a 15 minute pre-recorded mix that is a compilation of trance classics put to special effects that are pre-prepared and precisely timed. Tickets are available for Transmission in advance for cheaper than on the door, and this could be the last time Transmission is a Czech only event.

“From next year we are going abroad with Transmission in May 2014 to Slovakia,” Martijn concludes. “We will go over to help set up and organise but will be selling the licence to promoters in the region. Then we hope to maybe expand further, all the way out to Asia someday.”  

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