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Europe - Performance systems integrator Pro Media Audio Video is entering the European market with industry veteran Eddie Thomas charged with developing global business for new entity Pro Media Audio Video EU, Thomas brings 30 years of industry knowledge to the role.
Headquartered in Lititz, Pennsylvania, Pro Media Audio Video joined the Clair Global group of companies in 2019. The new EU office will establish a local presence from Britannia Row Productions’ Twickenham base.
Pro Media Audio Video has long established connections in live sports the company enjoys strong relationships with Major League teams in the US.
Pro Media Audio Video general manager, Ted Leamy, comments: “Each of the companies has the same working culture. Eddie shares our values and he

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UK - disguise has announced that global investment firm The Carlyle Group will take a majority stake in the company, with US video games developer Epic Games taking a minority stake.
disguise employees will also retain a “significant” minority share, with founder Ash Nehru the largest shareholder. Existing private equity partner Livingbridge will also reinvest in the transaction.
The partnership with Carlyle will accelerate disguise’s growth plan, focusing on international expansion, continued innovation, and enhanced support and product offerings for its customers. Meanwhile, Epic Games has bolstered its position with this latest transaction, having last year backed disguise with an undisclosed grant to enable its technology to be a native platform for the delivery of Unreal Engine content in xR projects.
disguise CEO Fernando Kufer says: “We’re proud

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UK - Throughout February, LSi and PLASA hosted a blind auction for an industry-related number plate reading ‘A1 DMX’, donated by a prominent TV lighting director who has chosen to remain anonymous. The aim of the auction was to raise funds for the #WeMakeEvents campaign, with the winning bid coming in at a generous £2,500. #WeMakeEvents, LSi and PLASA would like to thank everyone who took part.
Every penny from the auction will go to the #WeMakeEvents campaign and their chosen charity, Backup which supports industry professionals and their families through times of ill health and financial crisis. Backup also allocates #WeMakeEvents funds to a number of specialist charities, including: Acting for Others, Music Support, Stagehand and #MakeItBlue. 
The number plate’s original owner comments: “I’m very grateful to everyone who bid for my number plate, and esp
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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

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UK - The British Entertainment Industry Radio Group (BEIRG) will push into 2021 with a new logo and website, but “the same determination to ensure that the UK entertainment industry has access to enough quantity and quality of spectrum to maintain its position as a world leader,” says the organisation.
At the end of 2020, the steering group was bolstered with the return to the group of industry veteran John Steven, who had served on the steering group from 2006 until 2015; Jonathan Edwards from Terry Tew Sound & Light; and Phillip Brown from the Society of London Theatre. Meanwhile, familiar industry faces and BEIRG veterans Duncan Bell, Tuomo Tolonen and Andy Lillywhite remain steadfast in their drive on the steering group, and Anna Wolffe of Ranelagh provides support and expert strategic political guidance as she has done for nearly 10 years.
The group has e

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Summer of Love - More than 200 events are to be staged in and around Chester as Storyhouse prepares a reopening programme, which it promises will be a ‘barn-raising’ open air season. The arts organisation said it would begin activity from May, with theatres and cinemas allowed to operate from 17 May under the government reopening roadmap. Storyhouse said its Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre would open earlier than normal – possibly as early as 22 May – while Moonlight Flicks open-air cinema will also run from the May half term.
Storyhouse artistic director Alex Clifton said: “We’re launching a summer of festivity, joy and healing, together in the sunshine – a real summer of love. We’re planning a barn-raising, together-again party with the roof off. Plays and movies and family activities: all of us together in the city’s parks and open spaces, loving our cit

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USA - Founded in 1983, Seven Rivers Church, a large and growing congregation in Lecanto, Florida, has adopted a KLANG immersive in-ear mixing solution for all of its stage monitoring needs.
Installed as part of a full sound system upgrade completed last August by Louisville, Colorado-based Summit Integrated Systems, the church’s new KLANG setup is comprised of a DiGiCo Orange Box equipped with a DMI-KLANG card, which is capable of processing up to 64 inputs for 16 immersive in-ear mixes. The recent system retrofit project also saw the church install a new L-Acoustics A15-based PA system in its 1,000-seat auditorium, built in 2003.
Seven Rivers Church had been using IEMs for monitoring for a number of years prior to the upgrade, using a system that Seven Rivers Church director of worship Adam Hill describes as “serviceable” but lacking in sonic quality and functio

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USA - Northern California’s In Motion Fitness boasts 16,000 members. The heavily themed five-acre Mediterranean fitness resort features a wide variety of spaces used for different activities and classes, each with their own different interior design. Its latest addition is a space-themed spin studio which features multiple ADJ mirror balls and LED lighting fixtures.
Located in Chico, CA, the resort is dedicated to continually expanding and renovating the facilities available to its members. The latest chapter in this expansion was the renovation and re-theming of a former dance studio to create the Out of this World Galaxy Spin Studio, which officially opened on 1 March this year. The space allows gym members to ‘escape from their current reality for the duration of a spin class and boldly go to a place that could easily be what a dance club in the Star Wars universe may

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USA - When Jennifer Lopez performed a moving medley of This Land Is Your Land and America Is Beautiful at President Biden’s inauguration ceremony, few of the millions of people watching would have realised that British technology played a key role in shaping the sound they were hearing.
Behind the scenes, in the run up to the inauguration ceremony, Kevin Teasley, JLo’s Pro Tools programmer, music producer and musical director for her It’s My Party World Tour, used a comprehensive selection of Neve recording equipment to prepare the pre-recorded music that was vital to ensuring the success of her performance.
“The elevation of the final audio was superb and there is absolutely no doubt that Neve equipment helped us achieve the results we wanted,” Kevin says. “Neve is indeed a real go-to when I work in live, TV, film, records, trailers,

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Italy - Powersoft is now able to offer system integrators (SIs) the ability to scale inputs and zones conveniently and efficiently with the dynamic routing capabilities embedded on its fixed install amplifier platforms.
This ability makes it simple to share variable music sources locally and/or between different zones in small- / medium-sized venues, independently from the source location, and carry control signals in an automated fashion – all without the need of a centralised DSP. With dynamic routing all inputs can be shared over the network as Dante signal.
Moreover, user interfaces (UI) will allow integrators to obtain control of the entirety of the system in background and foreground dynamic music distribution applications; an ability that is useful in verticals such as bar and restaurant, hospitality, retail, and fitness.
As well as saving integrators

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Germany - Illusionists The Ehrlich Brothers should have recorded their Dream & Fly show for DVD and TV in March 2020. Everything was already set up in Munich when production was prohibited by an order from the Bavarian state.
But the Ehrlich Brothers would not be the Ehrlich Brothers if they simply left it at that. And so Andreas and Chris Ehrlich started planning the two-part TV show Factory of Dreams together with Gerdon design in May. Also included in the set were 24 of the new JDC Lines from GLP, which would serve the two show magicians well.
Factory of Dreams was finally produced on 2 and 4 October in a hall on the premises of Ehrlich Entertainment GmbH in Bünde, North Rhine-Westphalia. The show was a mixture of new and known illusions as well as some highlights from the past few years.
Gerdon design from Wiesbaden came on board as

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Sweden - Göteborg’s Folkteatern was built in the 1950s by an association of trade unions and other organisations for the Swedish working classes to enjoy cultural experiences such as the theatre. Still funded by regional government, a premium-quality experience is still the order of the day.
Folkteatern has recently invested in TiMax TrackerD4 precision stagetracking automation so that, as in-house sound engineer, Allan Antilla, explains, “the audience can keep track of who´s voice they are hearing when we use microphones.”
Allan specified TiMax TrackerD4 for the venue’s main proscenium theatre because, as longstanding beneficiaries of TiMax tracker-controlled spatial audio, Allan and the sound team at Folkteatern appreciate the time and effort that is saved whilst achieving significant improvements in sound quality and balance from the actors’ radio mics.

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The Netherlands - De Vooravond is a new talk-show broadcast on the Netherlands first national TV channel NPO 1, presented by Renze Klamer & Fidan Ekiz covering a mix of politics, sport, music, and culture - often with some live performance spots. The current and second series is being lit by LD Jeroen van Geffen using Robe moving lights including T1 Profiles, Esprites and Spikies.
LD Jeroen works for production company Chain which is part of the Rentall group’s operations specialising in broadcast lighting and audio.
He initially lit the first pilot for this series – which takes inspiration from the De Wereld Draait Door (The World Moves On) ‘magazine’ programme that ran for 15 years – at the end of 2020. It was such a success that the second series started in the new year.
The creative brief was to present a fresh and contemporary l

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Australia - Martin Audio’s MLA Mini loudspeaker array has been specified at a new leisure development in Rosenthal Park, Lane Cove - a suburb of Sydney.
The technology was specified by integration company Xcite Audio Visual, who tendered the successful bid, with the system supplied and supported by the manufacturer’s Australian distributor, Technical Audio Group (TAG).
“There was a performance specification written but no brands specified,” explains TAG’s system sales manager, Ewan McDonald. “Xcite came to us at tender stage wanting to look at a Martin Audio solution and TAG’s SSE (System Solutions & Engineering) team assisted them in providing a proof of concept based around the MLA Mini system.”
MLA Mini provides sound reinforcement on a bandstand stage, which is the centrepiece of the new development, known as The Canopy.
Lane Cove C

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USA - It’s had multiple names since it first opened in June of 1992, but the Phoenix Suns Arena - formerly America West Arena, US Airways Centre, Talking Stick Resort Arena, and PHX Arena - has been the home of the NBA Phoenix Suns since day one.
What has changed recently is how the venue sounds, with a new L-Acoustics Kara II loudspeaker system in place just in time for the 2021 NBA season, which began with a Suns win over the Dallas Mavericks on 23 December, 2020.
Designed by AV consultants at WJHW and installed by Pro Sound & Video, a Solotech company, the new Kara II system is part of the $230m Project 201: PHX Reimagined, designed to convert the nearly 30-year-old arena into a state-of-the-art sports entertainment venue for Phoenix Suns and WNBA Phoenix Mercury fans.
According to Pro Sound & Video, the arena’s management specifically requested an

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UK - To mark International Women’s day this year, sound design and music production facility String and Tins has announced the launch of the second iteration of its female-led programme No Fixed Mix. Aiming to improve the gender balance in technical sound roles, the music company will conduct a series of workshops, arming participants with tips, tools and resources to help them pursue a career in sound.
The inaugural programme of No Fixed Mix, held in 2019, welcomed five aspiring sound engineers into String and Tins’ studios. Created by String and Tins’ audio post production manager Eimear Ní Ghuaire, the programme included three workshops that focused on the audio industry - production, sound design and music - and was aimed at any woman seeking a career in sound design.
This year, String and Tins is expanding the programme to reflect the growing variety of pro

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USA - Renkus-Heinz has announced the latest product in its C Series line: the CA/CX121M – a compact stage monitor suitable for a multitude of applications.
“The CA/CX121M is the culmination of extensive customer and market feedback,” said Brandon Heinz, product manager at Renkus-Heinz. “The addition of the CX/CA121M supports the totality of the C series as an innovative stage monitor, delivering exceptional performance and consistent coverage at a very attractive price point.” The monitor is available in both passive (CX121M) and powered (CA121M) models.
Designed not only as a stage monitor, the CA/CX121M is also suitable for portable and installed PA functions. It can be used as a pole-mounted side-fill – using the optional pole adapter – or sound reinforcement system without the need to rotate or reconfigure the drive unit. Also, the UBRKT/CT121M mounti

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USA - The production teams behind the sound, video, lighting and broadcast facilities at The Potter’s House in Dallas have long sought out the best technologies with which to deliver the message of the church’s founder, televangelist Bishop T.D. Jakes, to his 30,000-strong congregation.
Most recently, the audio system has undergone a significant upgrade with the installation of three Dante-networked Solid State Logic Live L550 digital mixing consoles, positioned at front-of-house, monitors and in the church’s broadcast centre.
“As our ministry has grown over the years and we’ve started to do a lot of stuff that’s outside of the norm, we started to run into walls because we just couldn’t do it with our previous consoles. We have 160 or 170 inputs at times, and we were starting to run into input challenges,” says production manager and front-of-house engi

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Spain - Amate Audio is marking International Women’s Day, celebrating the ever-increasing number of women working in and performing key roles in entertainment technology. Their increasing presence, a powerful force for improvement in our industry; in manufacturing and supply, on-stage, backstage, behind the scenes, or front-of-house.
In a statement the company says, “On International Women’s Day, we are celebrating the role of women working throughout our industry, alongside the particular achievements and importance of women at Amate Audio. Women fulfil some of the most critical roles in our company – in design engineering, production, marketing and administration. Their talents, skills and creativity are integral to our endeavour.”
Currently women make up 37% of the Amate workforce and hold many key positions. These include the company’s chief acoustics e

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Germany - rental company Gahrens + Battermann has been active in events and entertainment since 1983 by offering innovative technical solutions, having eight locations throughout Germany. Gahrens + Battermann has invested in numerous Prolights EclPanel TWC recently, as part of a growth of inventory and business strategy.
Dennis Rudolph, head of the lighting technology department, comments, "In terms of output and light quality, the Prolights EclPanel TWC has completely convinced us. In addition, there are several points that make it stand out in my eyes compared to other product solutions. For example, the device has an integrated power supply and W-DMX, which is a great advantage in terms of mobility.
“Also, the panels are in a black housing, which of course makes integration into sets etc. visually easier. All in all, I can say that all features are convincing an

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UK - The WACKIT Contest organisers - CAST Group of Companies, Claypaky and Durham and Jennie Marenghi have announced the winners of the virtual lighting competition held over the past few months and judged by the LD panel of Paule Constable, Davy Sherwin and David Bishop, chaired by Durham Marenghi.
WACKIT comprised two side-by-side competitions for professional and student lighting designers from UK and Ireland to create a virtual video of their work from a model of the Royal Albert Hall.
Winner of the Professional section is Nick Humphrey, second is Kris Goodman with David Howard taking third place. Commenting on the winning entry, the judges said, “Builds well – the cueing through it was good and the progression of ideas well delivered and it pulls back to the organ – so story keeps going – pretty realistic, good movie – lots of falling effects – well t

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Switzerland - Chauvet continues to expand its presence in Europe. The company has just announced that it will begin providing direct sales and service support for its products in the Swiss market through its French and German offices.
Chauvet France will be responsible for the western section of Switzerland, and Chauvet Germany will look after the rest of the country. Renens, Switzerland-based Radio Matériel will continue to be a reseller and service support centre for Chauvet in the region. The new programme applies to Chauvet Professional, Chauvet DJ and Iluminarc products.
Martin Fournier, Chauvet’s European sales director will lead the expansion effort, while Aland Mahieu of Chauvet France and Alexander Rexforth of Chauvet Germany will oversee their respective regional markets within Switzerland.
“This is an exciting development for us,” said Stéphane
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