UK - Songwriter and producer Dan McDougall is saving plenty of time on projects thanks to his recent investment in a Neve 1073OPX Octal microphone/line/instrument preamplifier, which is specifically designed to meet the needs of a modern studio environment.
Dan’s writing space at Hoxa HQ in London is primarily based around an ‘in the box’ workflow but if he needs access to a larger recording facility, he can easily tap into the Hoxa HQ main studio. This has a control room equipped with a vintage Neve 8058 console with 31102 channel mic pre-amp/EQ, the circuitry and sound of which is almost identical to today’s 1073 variants.
“The Hoxa HQ Neve console sounds amazing,” Dan says. “The 1073OPX is the first Neve unit I’ve purchased, but I’ve always been a h

USA - For Victory Church, Westminster, CO, entering the live-stream world was something that they aimed to achieve within the next few years, but when the pandemic struck, it was a shift that they needed to make within a few weeks. With a limited budget and requirements for wireless capabilities, Pliant Technologies’ MicroCom XR digital wireless intercom system was the chosen solution. With MicroCom XR, production staff and volunteers can deploy a reliable solution for clear communication, helping productions - both in-person and live-streamed - go on without a glitch.
“The Pliant system was the first intercom to be deployed at Victory Church,” says Krystle Thompson, creative director at Victory Church. “When looking at our options, I knew we needed a system that could handle upwards of five users, while allowing personnel to move freely in order to have multiple wir

USA - Much has been written about how the trend toward online and virtual options that was already taking place before the pandemic accelerated mightily in 2020. Church of the King, a dynamic house of worship outside New Orleans, provides proof of this phenomenum in action.
Prior to the coronavirus, well over 7,000 people were attending services every weekend at Church of the King, as they had been for years. But recently, a growing number of additional worshippers were also connecting to the multi-campus house of worship via livestreams.
As a growing number of its congregants turned to the internet during the lockdown, the church decided to make its services more camera-friendly without detracting from the in-person experience. This March, Church of the King achieved this goal when it completed a lighting upgrade that featured Chauvet Professional LED fixtures.
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Indochine X PixMob Fan Immersion

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's - 40 thousand LED pixels on a ceiling!!! Indochine's whirlwind tour transports fans to another level of the live experience - immersing them from floor to ceiling with PixMob's X4 wristbands, and an LED ceiling made entirely of its NOVA Minis! With the vision of Indochine's creative team, PixMob used its LED fan-technology to turn attendees and venues into an ocean of effects, and a starry sky of LED magic. Très très cool!

Read more about the Indochine tour in the latest issue of LSi

China - Christie has announced that its 1DLP laser projectors are delivering highly immersive visuals in a new digital experience pavilion at the new Beijing Daxing International Airport, the world’s largest single-building airport terminal.
Featured works by Van Gogh and Monet are projected on the walls in the main gallery using Christie DWU850-GS laser projectors.
Located on the second level of the sprawling terminal building nicknamed “the Starfish” due to its star-shaped design, the Journey of Light and Shadow digital experience pavilion provides visitors with an immersive and interactive space to appreciate and experience art through the use of cutting-edge projection, audio, and interactive technologies. The venue consists of a preface hall and main gallery lit by 15 Christie DWU850-GS 1DLP laser projectors supplied, installed and commissioned by Chr

Denmark - German car manufacturer Audi launched its electric e-tron Sportback model in Denmark with a visuals-focused event powered by two Hippotizer Amba+ Media Servers.
More than 30sq.m of LED screen was constructed at Audi Danmark’s Gladsaxe showroom, as a backdrop to a large stage upon which the e-tron Sportback was displayed.
Audi Danmark’s marketing manager Morten Friis-Olsen approached Danish event lighting and visuals expert Showtech to deliver the visuals, lighting and staging for the launch, which was live streamed to both consumers and members of the car industry.
“The Audi team shared the brief for the event with us, requesting a dynamic and bright look and feel to reflect the car’s ‘100% electric, 100% Audi’ tagline,” says Showtech’s Joachim Bay. “We translated this into the visuals, using Audi’s branding as the core of the creati

France - GLP’s JDC Line was out in force when massive French band Indochine began celebrating its 40th year by playing an exclusive broadcast show at L’Espace Niemeyer in Paris recently.
This historic event was an isolated, audience-free gig for the French radio channel RTL2, which was broadcast on air and online - and is also now available on YouTube.
“This was a very special place,” says lighting designer Jean-Christophe Aubrée. “The building was designed by Oscar Niemeyer, and the band was playing in the main area - which is a big underground white dome, with a ceiling made from thousands of metallic fins hung all over the ceiling. Performing in a space that normally function as a 300-person conference room created such a beautiful and unique raw atmosphere.”
The artistic direction is driven by the band’s frontman Nicola Sirkis. “His brief was

Qatar - Postponed until 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2020 was recently held with Qatar Vision Production Company (Qvision) producing and delivering the infotainment for all matches played at Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium and Education City Stadium, as well as developing, producing and managing the presentation ceremony.
Claypaky Scenius Unico, Hepikos and Sharpy Plus fixtures played key roles in the Qatar Vision productions, which included synchronised light-and-music shows before each match and the final ceremony crowning Bayern Munich as champions.
The FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2020 was the 17th edition of the FIFA-organised international club football tournament between the winners of the six continental confederations, as well as the host nation's league champions. However, only six teams competed in the tournament because of New Zeal

The Netherlands - Emerging victorious after an extensive tender period, Dutch supplier Ampco Flashlight has been selected to supply audio, lights and rigging for the 65th Eurovision Song Contest to be held in the Rotterdam Ahoy Arena in May 2021. After being postponed in 2020 due to COVID-19, preparations are already in full swing for the live 2021 broadcast.
Dick van Berkum, CEO Ampco Flashlight comments: “We are extremely pleased and proud to be able to cooperate -after a one-year delay- on this unique worldwide event, organised and supplied by Dutch professionals. It is an honour that after ESC Lisbon 2018, where we supplied lights and rigging, we have now been selected as supplier in Rotterdam, adding audio to the portfolio.”
Ampco Flashlight, based in Utrecht, has been a leader in professional lighting, sound, rigging and motion for almost five decades. Besi

The Netherlands - Elation continues its informative and entertaining Coffee Break presentation series on 15 April with a thorough look at the two latest luminaires in the company’s popular Key Light (KL) Series: the KL Fresnel 8 FC and the KL Par FC, both theatrical and broadcast grade luminaires.
The KL Fresnel 8 FC and KL Par FC high-quality wash luminaires offer full-spectrum LED engines for a wide array of soft field saturates and pastels, including tunable white light. “Ideal for broadcast environments, film, theatre or any production requiring outstanding colour quality, they offer colour rendering of the highest quality and meet the strict standards of performance venues that are light critical and noise sensitive,” says Elation.
Join Alistair Smyth and Frederik Afif live on Thursday, 15 April at 11:00am CEST. Tune in at


Back Home - An arts venue in Manchester is to open a new 400-seat socially distanced outdoor theatre space. Home said the temporary venue would provide shows, music, cabaret and comedy for people "looking for a safe and fun night out as lockdown eases". Named Homeground, it will open on 28 May on a future development site in the city's First Street.
The project will create 450 new jobs for freelance artists and creatives, the venue said. Over the summer the venue plans to stage musical versions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Alice in Wonderland. It will also host work by partners including Frog & Bucket, Contact and Trans Creative.
Park Life - Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre will reopen in the summer with an extended season and has announced a new co-production with London’s Unicorn Theatre. The previously announced production of Romeo and Jul

UK - The music industry has sadly lost another character with the passing of Phil Hildrow, an archetypal salesman, charmingly personable, slightly risqué loveable rogue. Phil died earlier this month, aged 75.
During the ‘70s Phil worked for PACE-MM who pioneered the “cheap but serviceable” mixing consoles which launched the careers of so many bands on the pub circuits of the UK.
The UK’s dominance in this market led to growing demand for ‘Made in GB’ products across mainland Europe. So, sensing the untapped potential for sales, Phil set off with a demo MM mixer in the boot of his trusty blue Vauxhall Cavalier to call on the music shops on the other side of the Channel and take orders, preferably large ones, prepaid.
This launched Phil’s new love of travel, which along with his love of football and family stayed with him for life.
Early in the

UK - Calibre UK has introduced the LEDFusion Pro direct view line of LED displays.
LEDFusion Pro will be available to market in the second half of 2021 in the APAC region, and in two sizes and differing pixel pitches catering for most viewing distances - 130-inch 1080p (1.5 pitch) and 163-inch 4K (0.9375 pitch).
“Calibre takes installation professionals on a brand new adventure which begins with the LEDFusion Pro,” says Willy Tsai, managing director at Calibre UK. “LEDFusion Pro addresses specific trends in today’s business workflows – specifically the increasing importance of colour accuracy, performance, versatility, connectivity and low cost of ownership. Fusion Pro is designed for sharing ultra-realistic graphical images with a sharpness and clarity that is unmatched by any other display solutions. Bringing the LEDFusion Pro to market will increase instal

Australia - ARX is pleased to announce the launch of the new ARX Ultra deBalancer, a two-channel audio debalancer and switchable +4dB or -10dB level optimiser, specifically designed to handle the critical task of converting pro audio balanced outputs to unbalanced signals.
With so many different consumer products in today’s ‘BYOD’ environment, you need to be prepared with the right equipment on hand to silently interface with unbalanced +4dB line level signal paths or the -10dB unbalanced inputs of low operating level professional and consumer electronics, says ARX. The Ultra deBalancer interface offers a straightforward solution with industry standard female amphenol XLR Inputs and transformer isolated and de-balanced 6.5mm jack, RCA and 3.5mm jack outputs to cover all plug types.
As part of the ARX Audibox range of audio interfaces, the Ultra deBalancer feature

USA - The past 12 months challenged the AV industry in new ways, particularly when it came to sustaining and supporting partners and customers. LEA Professional saw the difficulties faced by system integrators and worked to connect with them and support their business through the use of cloud technology. Now, with the benefits of the cloud firmly embedded in the minds of industry stakeholders, LEA Professional expects there is no going back.
“Integrators have been able to navigate the ever-changing environment by capitalising on proven, robust cloud technology from global leaders, such as Amazon Web Services, to provide continued support for customers and partners. It’s made it easy for integrators to help customers through various work-from-home situations and to navigate social distancing and other health protocols,” said Blake Augsburger, founder and CEO LEA Profess

USA - When Grammy winning vocalist Judith Hill shot a promotional video for the Elans Artists agency in March, the soaring quality of her sound was reflected in light, courtesy of a See-Hear Productions designed and supplied rig that included 33 Chauvet Professional fixtures and 89 F4IP video panels, along with some supplemental units from RZI Lighting.
Tony Milliet ran the rig for the four-day filming session with his ChamSys MagicQ MQ80 plus two extra wings, using his console to create a steady stream of bold looks that, like the music of this uniquely talented artist, conveyed an unbridled sense of energy.
“We had a lot of songs that needed to be shot in just four days,” said Milliet. “I was only given a few tracks ahead of time. I was able to build cue stacks for those songs. All of the other songs were done on the fly. Being able to come up with new looks wa

USA - Department chair John Little has noticed a change in Media Arts & Technology degree programme applicants at Mount Wachusett Community College since its studio rebuild. “We are a small community college whose student body mostly commutes to campus from within 20 miles. Website photos from the renovations are now drawing audio students from hundreds of miles away, some of whom rent apartments so they can train here.”
Five years on, the college is still enjoying the fruits of its Media Arts & Technology facility upgrade, which included a rebuild of five audio control rooms. Little commented on the new ASP8024 at the time: “We’re especially happy with the Audient console we put in Studio 5,” and he stands by his statement today. “I chose it before I knew how many colleges around the world use them. I insisted on an actual console with real audio paths o

South Africa - The Covid-19 restrictions on houses of worship in South Africa has seen many churches move to on-line services and upping their skills to deliver a professional broadcast. Empower Church in Pretoria recently invested in a Waves LV1 System with the addition of Audix ADX51 for crowd microphones, and along with their vibrant in-house audio engineer, Kgosi Rankhumise, a positive result has been achieved for those watching the service from home.
“Over a year ago, the church took a big leap forward in upgrading their existing audio system with the purchase of a DiGiCo SD12,” explained Jaco Beukes of DWR Distribution. “They have really enjoyed the console and what it offers the engineers at Empower Church. We also supplied L-Acoustics loudspeakers comprising of six X8 front-fills, two X8 monitors and three Kiva delay speakers installed with amps. This combined

South Africa - It’s a new season for the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) in Pretoria who rode the Covid-19 wave and have turned their Performing Arts Diploma curriculum upside down with a different approach. The students are currently working alongside technical supply company MGG, to host a virtual stage, which will also be recorded for external examiners.
“We are very excited to announce that all previous departments that worked within the Performing Arts have now merged into one Department of Performing Arts (DPA),” comments Janine Lewis, professor and HOD at TUT. “The six programmes we had before are being phased out while first-year students will now follow the new multi-disciplinary Diploma in Performing Arts and then go into a discipline stream of speciality where they can focus on Dance, TAD (Theatre, Art & Design which includes performance and te

UAE - Located next to Dubai’s Media and Internet City hub, the Grand Plaza Mövenpick Media City hotel features 235 rooms and suites, five restaurants/bars, a 1150m2 convention centre (including 800m2 Grand Ballroom), meeting rooms, rooftop lounge, gym, spa and swimming pool.
Systems integrator Telematics was asked to install audio systems in the Grand Ballroom, spa/gym and five meeting rooms, delivering audio to match the hotel’s facilities and décor. Supplied by Thomsun Trading, the sound of the VXC series ceiling speakers was one of the reasons for choosing a Yamaha solution.
The Grand Ballroom is mainly used for corporate events and weddings. For maximum flexibility, it can be divided into two or three smaller spaces, so an adaptable audio system was needed. Here, 22 VXC8 ceiling speakers were installed - in two groups of eight and one of six for the three zo

Germany - To light the 30m-high glass atrium of the Cologne Cinedom multiplex cinema, architectural lighting specialists Kardorff Ingenieure Lichtplanung chose Robe moving lights and Anolis LED floods to be at the core of a new lighting scheme to upgrade this impressive public area.
Cologne Cinedom was opened in 1991 and is one of the largest movie theatres in Germany with over 3,000 seats and 14 screens, located at the MediaPark in the Neustadt-Nord district of Cologne.
Jan Wichert was the lead lighting designer for Berlin-based Kardorff Ingenieure who were commissioned by the venue to re-light the atrium. The client already had some clear ideas about what they wanted, so Jan and his team added their imagination and expertise and worked closely with interior architects Maas & Partner to create a versatile new contemporary energy and cost-efficient installation. <

Canada - Beside the St Lawrence river in Montreal, the Parc Optimiste boasts expansive grounds for recreational activities or outdoor sports. The park also supports the local community in Sainte-Catherine by providing a wide range of events. In light of this, it needed a public address and entertainment system that could further support the community.
The city’s head of events, Nicolas G. Bouchard, wanted to introduce a permanent solution towards the park’s audio needs that could provide audio and public support for any events that take place on the grounds. This was partly inspired by the positive response from local residents to the park’s Halloween 2020 theme, in which lighting and decorations were placed along the park’s walkway. Without an audio system, the city was unable to provide music to go with the theme, and the need for enhancing the park with audio equi

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