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World - Following the postponement of Showlight 2021 which had been set to take place this May in Fontainebleau, France, its organisers have announced that a one-day Virtual Showlight will be held in its place “as a temporary interlude”. The live online event will take place on Tuesday 25 May 2021 between the hours of 15.00 – 23.00 BST. The date coincides with the final day of the original event and the time has been chosen to best accommodate a global audience.
Virtual Showlight will host an online presentation of papers, each up to 30 minutes in length, from international keynote speakers, plus a live Panel Discussion. Q&A sessions will follow each paper with delegates able to message their questions via the chairperson.
The remainder of the time will stay

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UK - On Tuesday 2 February, #WeMakeEvents gave evidence during the DCMS select committee inquiry into the future of UK festivals. The campaign’s political group leader Duncan Bell detailed the ongoing challenges faced by the live events and entertainment industry.
When asked if there is a problem with people leaving the industry due to COVID-19, he stated: "Freelancers have been forced to find work elsewhere. In a recent survey of 2,800 people over 30% of freelancers said they have had to leave the industry, and 20% say they hope to come back but are very unsure whether they are able to because of the lack of certainty." #WeMakeEvents is currently verifying the data from this survey and will be publishing the full report in the coming weeks.
One of the central aims of #WeMakeEvents is to get government-backed cancellation insurance for events, and follo

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UK - The new Solid State Logic UF8 controller delivers ‘a new level of user focused design; insightful displays, intelligent fader and control access and function, multiple stand angles for user defined placement, and a production workflow enhancing control layout’. The high-spec touch sensitive faders, encoders, and high-resolution colour displays, compliment the premium build quality that belie this new price point for an SSL controller, says the company.
Expandable to a 32 channel control surface with integration for all major DAW platforms, UF8 is suited to music creation, production and mixing, post production and webcasting. The new SSL 360° control software manages multi-controller configurations, customised user keys, and DAW switching across multiple layers, allowing for seamless switching between numerous sessions.
Andy Jackson, SSL studio product manage
featured content

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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USA - Billy Bob’s bills itself as ‘the world’s largest honky tonk’. The former World War II airplane factory in Fort Worth’s Stockyard District, covers over 100,000sq.ft, features a 2,000sq.ft dance floor, 20-acre parking lot and 30 bar stations.
This information is shared in an introductory video near the venue’s entrance narrated by George Strait, one of the many superstars who has performed at this Goliath of a club.
Despite its massive size and stellar pedigree, the stage at Billy Bob’s is relatively small. Mason Felps was aware of this “limitation” when he signed on to design two recent socially distant concerts at the club for Josh Turner. He was able to meet this challenge and create big looks for the chart-topping country artist with help from the Chauvet Professional Rogue R1 Spot.
“This is a great venue, and it’s an honour to work

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South Korea - TechDataPS Co recently equipped the new Vans Brand showcase store in Seoul’s Gangnam district with a Harman Professional Solutions audio system spanning two floors and featuring JBL loudspeakers, Crown amplifiers and dbx zone processors.
In addition to being a retail outlet for the brand’s extensive footwear and apparel line, the Gangnam store aims to immerse visitors in the company’s history and style. The first floor features a “shoppable timeline” of historical merchandise, books, vinyl records and more, as well as a DJ booth and a functioning wall of vintage loudspeakers. The second floor houses a “customisation zone” where customers can design and personalize their own shoes and apparel, as well as space for hosting weekly workshops and events.
To provide balanced audio coverage for background music and special events on both levels of

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UK - A.C. Special Projects (AC-SP) supplied lighting and control for a feature within the new Silverstone Experience, which is an educational 4000m visitor attraction, overlooking the Silverstone racetrack.
The project to create an educational centre for British motor sport began in 2012 with the charitable mission of creating a museum to exhibit and preserve precious motor racing artefacts, archives and collections. The seven-year project of turning a former Second World War RAF hangar into an impressive experience for motor sport enthusiasts cost in excess of £20m and required multiple teams of specialists to pull it all together.
AC-SP was approached by M4 Electrical and worked alongside them and designers Max Fordham to deliver a range of lighting and control solutions, including for a bespoke cut out replica of the historic Silverstone track to run at high level

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Belgium - Creative lighting and multimedia design specialist Painting with Light (PWL) was commissioned by the city of Leuven to imagine and realise an eye-catching, living, breathing light artwork to tie in with popular Belgian Radio station StuBru (Studio Brussel)’s 2020 De Warmste Week (Music for Life).
Usually, a highly visible charity fundraising extravaganza, this year’s De Warmste Week concept was reinvented and presented in a more subtle format due to pandemic restrictions. While the city of Leuven broadcast StuBru from 20 ‘warm places’ around the town for this week, the light art display became a visual focal point that tied in with this action.
The designated site for the lighting feature was the front of Leuven’s Catholic University Library. The building features neo-Flemish-Renaissance architecture and holds over 4m books and manuscripts.

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Cyprus - A virtual charity event recently took place on the island of Cyprus to help families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Featuring local DJs and performers, United We Can was filmed on top of one of the tallest buildings in the city of Limassol. A lighting rig comprised exclusively of ADJ fixtures was used to not only illuminate the performers, but to fill the whole sky above the city.
Cyprus relies heavily on tourism to fuel its economy, which means that it has been seriously impacted by COVID-19, resulting in many families struggling to pay their bills and feed their children. In direct response to this situation, the United We Can fundraising livestream took place last Friday evening (29 January), which not only collected donations for those in need but also provided entertainment for a community under strict lockdown measures.
Broadcast by Cyp

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USA - When the new Biden-Harris administration asked New Radicals frontman Gregg Alexander to play You Get What You Give at their 20 January virtual Parade Across America, producers ESM Productions and A/V provider Synergetic stepped in to help make it happen.
“Scott Mirkin, president & CEO of ESM Productions, had seen our new studio streaming space and called just a few days before the Inauguration as he thought the stage would be a good setting for the New Radicals performance,” comments Jason Weldon, president and CEO at Synergetic. “When he came in to refresh his memory, as soon as he walked in he said he knew the space would be perfect.”
Last summer, Synergetic converted a portion of their warehouse in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, to a professional studio for live streaming complete with a full Elation Professional lighting system. As the tra

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Europe - The organisers of Integrated Systems Europe 2021, scheduled for June in Barcelona, have set a 1 March deadline for making a decision as to whether the physical event will go head.
ISE managing director Mike Blackman remains hopeful that the show will go on. However, in his most recent statement, in view of the unpredictable nature of the pandemic and continuing travel restrictions, he remains guarded.
“Following the announcement that the InfoComm 2021 show will now take place in Orlando in October 2021, we want to confirm that Integrated Systems Europe, remains scheduled to open live and online on 1-4 June in its new home at the Fira, Barcelona,” says Blackman.
“Whilst we recognise there continue to be challenges ahead, we are in touch with government and the relevant health authorities to constantly monitor the situation. None of us can predict

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UK - Leading trade associations have backed a campaign to keep UK’s VAT rate on ticket sales at 5% to aid the live events sector’s recovery.
Last July, the government temporarily slashed the VAT rate to 5% from the standard rate of 20% to support businesses severely affected by the pandemic. The cut currently applies until 31 March 2021.
#KeepVATat5, initiated by LIVE (Live music Industry Venues & Entertainment), aims to convince the Treasury to extend the VAT rate cut for the next three years and comes ahead of chancellor Rishi Sunak’s hotly-anticipated budget announcement on 3 March.
“With the budget approaching, we must act now to convince the chancellor to #KeepVATat5,” says LIVE in a statement. “Of all the industry’s asks from government currently, keeping the VAT rate on tickets at 5% for the next three years will make the single biggest i

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USA - Renkus-Heinz has appointed Dudley McLaughlin to the position of national sales manager and Garrison Parkin to the position of western regional sales manager effective 1 February. The positions both cover the North American region.
McLaughlin has been with Renkus-Heinz since he was hired as western regional sales manager in 2018. Parkin joined the company in 2019 as southwestern territory sales manager.
“Dudley and Garrison are both important members of the Renkus-Heinz family,” said Harro Heinz, chairman and co-founder of Renkus-Heinz. “And while their success is well documented prior to 2020, it took commitment by everyone on our team to ensure we continued shipping product and supporting our partners over the past year. Dudley and Garrison are prime examples of that commitment. Their promotions will help us better serve our partners going into 2021 and be

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Italy - Prolights has expanded its film and television division with the appointment of film lighting veteran Davide Bernarello as business development manager. Bernarello brings over three decades of experience across manufacturers, distributors and technical operator, having worked previously for companies including ARRI and Desisti.
“We are thrilled to be welcoming Davide to our team as we look ahead to 2021 with a positive outlook into the future of our company,” comments Fabio Sorabella, managing director at Prolights. “Davide will certainly be able to bring an important contribution within product and business development in a growing division for our organisation, through his extensive international experience.”
“I'm truly excited to be joining an emerging family company such as Prolights,” comments Bernarello. “Their dynamic attitude is very stimu

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UK - Martin Audio reports that the previously announced SXCF118 and SXC115 compact, high performance cardioid subwoofers are now shipping.
Purpose designed to partner the WPS and WPM line arrays respectively, these additions to the product portfolio are suitable for both live sound reinforcement and fixed installations, says the company.
The SXCF118, a flyable version of the SXC118, has been engineered to match the WPS optimised line array system, while the ground stack SXC115 will add low frequency extension to the WPM.
The SXCF118 combines maximum low frequency output with exceptional pattern control. It features an 18” (460mm) forward facing driver and a 14” (356mm) rear facing driver, each driven independently by separate amplifier channels and DSP. Each driver has its own chamber with optimised bass reflex porting. This arrangement produces a cardioid d

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Taiwan - J.studio, a commercial recording studio in the centre of Taipei, has made a Neve 8424 console the centrepiece of its main control room because it gives the facility the routing flexibility, modularity and freedom it needs to combine a modern, digital workflow with its extensive collection of analogue outboard equipment.
and is now offering recording, mixing and mastering facilities to all types of musical genres including classical, jazz, EDM, and pop.
“We especially love working with Taiwanese indie bands as many of the bands we have worked with have had their full creative potentAudio engineer Zhu Chiao Chen opened J.studio in 2019 ial realized in our studio space,” Zhu Chiao Chen explains. “Our approach is to bridge old school gear and apply modern techniques to achieve sonically unique results. The studio is equipped with Urei 813C main monitors and

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China - Since re-opening its doors partway through 2020, the new I’m Han Night Station in Wuhan has been making international headlines thanks to more than just its lavish appointments and production technologies package. When the upscale nightspot welcomed much-hyped DJ crew Pink Panda to its stage in July, it marked the first time an international artist had performed in the city since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic - and it was a PK Sound Trinity system from Chinese distributor Polar Audio driving the high-energy party.
“Our vision with I’m Han Night Station was to spare no expense and deliver the finest nightlife experience you’ll find anywhere in the world,” comments Mr. Kane Lin of Singapore’s Dyson Kane Group, which oversees the club. “The audiovisual elements are obviously a significant part of that, and PK Sound has a global reputation for technolo

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USA - Utah-based tenor trio Gentri recently performed in a socially distant livestreamed concert at Salt Lake City’s Maverik Centre, where Nicolas ‘Murph’ Murphy supported their evocative cinematic-like performance with an artful blend of bold light and shadows.
Relying on sharply focused beams and a variety of light angles, Murphy sculpted the three tenors on stages, amplifying their charismatic qualities. He also endowed the stage with greater depth by balancing bold swaths of light with shadows, and mixing reds and greens with vivid ambers, blues and other hues.
Murphy, the owner of Murphy’s Production Services, pre-programmed this 11-universe, 82-fixture show, which he ran on his MagicQ MQ500 Stadium console, in a few hours with help from his ChamSys MagicVis software.
“The group’s production manager is an old high school friend of mine,” he sa

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South Africa - The South African State Theatre in Pretoria’s 550 seat Drama Stage hosted both the rounds and finale of the 2020 edition of Idols SA, complete with a lighting design by Joshua Cutts of Visual Frontier and technical production delivered by Dream Sets for SIC Entertainment. This, the sixteenth series of Idols SA was directed by Gavin Wratten and broadcast on the Mzansi Magic network.
The show would usually have shifted to the 3000 capacity Carnival City Big Top Arena in Johannesburg for the finale, however this time, due to COVID-19 restrictions, everything remained at the State Theatre, and Josh drew on some imaginative and original lighting techniques to keep all the broadcasts looking fresh, interesting, and spectacular.
He devised a selection of special visual treatments, some of which were based around utilising Astera Titan Tubes which Josh

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Australia - South Australia’s Summer Sounds Festival was a four-week outdoor concert series offering the joy of live sound to a 2,100-capacity audience. Eighteen shows ran the whole month of January, with festival-goers safely and comfortably spaced in ‘party pods’ that accommodated four to six people each.
The festival celebrated Australian artistes such as Bernard Fanning, Spiderbait, and Hayden James. Through the collaboration of Five Four Entertainment, Groove Events, and Secret Sounds, the festival promoters looked to Adelaide-based L-Acoustics rental network partner Novatech to provide that dynamic live sound festival-goers have been craving.
Festival-goers could choose from VIP, gold, silver, or bronze seating packages. VIP pods occupied the first five rows and boasted an exclusive toilet block, faster drink service, and a choice of premium drinks.
W

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UK - ITV’s This Morning is one of the longest running daytime programmes on British television. The show is broadcast from Television Centre in White City, West London, and is hosted by some of the UK’s leading presenters. Airing live, This Morning features a wide spectrum of topical material, from current affairs to showbiz, health, style and beauty, food, gardening and more. The show attracts around one million viewers per day, and this year reached its highest ever audience share of just under 30% of viewing.
During the first few weeks of December, the show featured a number of segments broadcast from outside locations at Television Centre. Head of Lighting for ITV Daytime, Matt Carter and his team used ETC fos/4 Panel lights (launched early in 2020) for the first time and were very impressed. He comments:
“We had two 24 x 24 size with the Daylig

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UK - FIX8Group is responding to the surge in demand for virtual events by partnering with the spatial visualisation and collaboration tool Cavrnus to enhance its event design and delivery solutions.
The move reflects the unprecedented challenges faced presently by the event industry, as more global events transfer to the digital domain and require true collaborative, online planning. Cavrnus enables event designers to build and share immersive and interactive 3D virtual environments, such as conference rooms, exhibitions and stores.
FIX8Group says that adding Cavrnus to its stable will facilitate enhanced options for anyone needing innovative technical delivery of online or hybrid events as the industry re-emerges.
“We're always looking at how we can use best-of-breed technology to help us produce world-class events,” comments Neil Trenell, creative director
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