Italy - Martin Audio’s CDD loudspeaker series, has found another high-profile home - on the Italian Riviera in Santa Margherita Ligure at the Il Covo Di Nord-Est nightclub.
The venue features both indoor and outdoor spaces: the main bar is located in the former, while the dance floor and sofas, arranged differently every night, can be found outside. The main DJ area hosts local artists as well as more well-known names in the music industry, and it is here that the ultra-compact 2-way CDD loudspeaker solution was specified.
The upgrade had been the result of a storm back in 2018 which had necessitated a complete venue rebuild, including the new audio system, which will now take on new challenges, both indoors and out.
Venue owners, Stefano Rosina and Matteo Canepa

UK - For Spectre Studios, virtual production (VP) is not a new field. Prior to the pandemic, the company was already using real-time engines and virtual production technologies for their work on Hollywood blockbusters and, last year, set up ICVFX full-service LED VP studio in conjunction with Big Picture, part of the NEP Worldwide Network, using Brompton Tessera LED processing power to drive ROE LED panels.
The climactic moment for Spectre, however, was in November, when the company participated in Epic Games’ Unreal Build: Virtual Production event, where a small number of creative studios across the world were invited to showcase their next-generation tools and techniques which are set to transform filmmaking industry. Brompton Tessera SX40 4K LED processing was used for the video piece that Spectre showed at the event.
“Unreal Build: Virtual Production<

Israel - Kley-Zemer’s professional division KZPRO were chosen to supply a JBL Professional audio system for the 60-year-old Bloomfield Stadium during its extensive three-year renovation project. The installation was a cooperation between independent consultant Harel Tabibi, integration company Barkai and installation company The Charmer Group.
Bloomfield Stadium, home of Hapoel Tel Aviv, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv football clubs, first opened in 1962. In addition to hosting three football clubs, the veteran stadium has accommodated many musical acts including Celine Dion, Rihanna, and Pixies.
In 2016, the stadium was closed for a massive three-year renovation, which included expanding the capacity to 29,150 seats, making it the third-largest football stadium in Israel. Barkai was brought in to outfit the newly renovated stadium with a sound system that
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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

Germany - In a summer that saw hardly any live shows, Landstreicher Konzert set an example with their corona-compliant series of Picnic Concerts in several German cities.
Singer-songwriter Lea was one of the artists who performed during the concert series, with lighting designer Maximilian Gräf from PE Lichtdesign using 20 KNV Line from GLP to bring a breath of fresh air to the existing tour design.
Gräf, who has been working as a lighting and stage designer for Lea since February 2017, had to fall back on an older design for the Picnic Concerts due to the pandemic. “The design for the new album Treppenhaus only exists on the drawing board, because all festivals were cancelled due to Covid,” he said. “When it came to the Picnic Concerts, I looked at both the old recording of the Zwischen Meinen Zeilen design and the drafts for the planned Treppenhaus<

USA - The Mall at University Town Centre in Sarasota, Florida, has over 100 stores and 20 dining options that attract multitudes of patrons year round. This past holiday season, the mall retired its smaller Christmas experience from years past and debuted a spectacular new holiday light show as incentive for customers to forego stay-at-home shopping and visit the mall instead.
Justin Stancil of Stancil Entertainment was contacted to design the lighting spectacular and turned to the ONYX platform from Obsidian Control Systems to control the massive system. “The client called saying they had a vision to do a big light show but had no idea how to achieve it,” Stancil shares. “I got the call in August and we designed a complete system - advanced pixels, intelligent lighting, control, hardlined and wireless networking, and automation.”
The lighting canvass, spread

Germany - Coda Audio has announced the appointment of Wilhelm & Willhalm Event Technology Group as a dealer partner in southern Germany. Founded 30 years ago, Wilhelm & Willhalm is based in Munich and will offer the complete Coda Audio portfolio with immediate effect, including all high-end reinforcement systems for pro sound applications, as well as a comprehensive range of loudspeakers for fixed installation.
Ton Groen, Coda Audio Deutschland managing director, is upbeat about the new sales alliance. “We are more than happy about this partnership,” he says. “Wilhelm & Willhalm has long been one of the most important players in our industry. We expect this new cooperation to result in an even greater market share for our high-quality systems, significantly widening distribution of our solutions. We have gained an excellent sales partner in Southern German

Australia - Meyer Sound has launched a direct, non-exclusive reseller network for the sales and marketing of its loudspeaker solutions in Australia and New Zealand starting January 2021. The new business model allows for greater factory-direct support to Meyer Sound customers in this growing market.
“Audio Brands Australia has been a fantastic partner and has helped us grow Meyer Sound’s brand awareness over the past three years,” comments John McMahon, senior vice-president. “Learnings from the pandemic suggest that moving to a more direct model will benefit customers in this important market.”
Over the decades, Meyer Sound products and technologies have earned widespread acceptance in Australia and New Zealand, with a number of systems installed in recent years. Examples include Telstra Theatrette Melbourne, Australian Outback Spectacular, and Townsville Ci

Norway - Chauvet has named Scandec as its exclusive distributor for Norway. The arrangement covers both Chauvet Professional and Chauvet DJ products.
“Until now, lighting has been missing from our portfolio of products,” comments Roar Birkeland, CEO of Scandec. “Before adding any lighting brand, we wanted to be completely certain that it offered the quality that our customers associate with the Scandec name. The wide range, quality and reputation of Chauvet attracted us to them. Now we are very excited to offer our customers complete solutions that include excellent lighting products.”
Stéphane Gressier, international sales director of Chauvet, adds: “We couldn’t be happier to have Scandec as our exclusive distributor in Norway. The dedication and energy that the Scandec team brings to the table will help us build on the momentum we have established in Nor

UK - Avolites has launched its new flagship Diamond 9 (D9) console, available in two versions: D9-330 and D9-215. The consoles are the result of years of technical innovation from the Avolites team, utilising their 45 years of industry experience, feedback from designers across the industry and award-winning industrial designers to create “the ultimate control surface”.
“The Diamond series is designed by visual designers, for visual designers and everyone in-between to intuitively combine lighting, media and other visual aspects of a show together,” the company says. “Each screen, fader, encoder and button has been meticulously thought over, so the console becomes an extension of the designer to give them totally unhindered creative freedom to power their ultimate shows.”
Bringing a new distinctive look and feel to the console, the main front panels are ma

UK - London welcomed in 2021 with a spectacular city-wide display, sending a message of thanks and hope to the nation and the world. Jack Morton, the global brand experience agency, helped to develop the original concept and worked in partnership with the Mayor of London’s office and a dedicated team of experts to create the extraordinary experience.
The 10-minute show, designed for home-viewing and created in collaboration with the BBC, was broadcast live on BBC1 and watched by a global viewing audience of millions. Jack Morton’s creative show team worked in collaboration with On the Sly for the music production, Titanium Fireworks for the pyrotechnics design, and SKYMAGIC for the swarm drone sequences.
Lighting for the event was designed by Durham Marenghi with Paul Cook as associate LD and programmer. The spectacular array of 168 Claypaky Mythos 2 and 168 Elati

USA - Imaginary Labs has announced the release of their premium subscription-based DMX plugin, Carbon for Unreal. It provides “the tools and assets necessary for professional, real time productions within the powerful framework of Unreal Engine.” Producers, designers, and virtual production professionals will now have a “singularly powerful solution for design development, renderings, visualization, and XR productions”.
David S. Perkins, CEO & chief architect of Imaginary Labs states: “Trustworthiness is the most important aspect of visualization. We want users to trust that what they are seeing in Carbon is a realistic representation of what they should expect to see in the real world. We are devoted to getting this right. At Imaginary Labs, we subscribe to the scientific method, with an open mind towards constant improvement. Combined with our devotion to se

USA - ETC has added a new option to its ArcSystem Pro family of LED solutions. Building on the success of the popular Pro One-Cell High Output luminaire, ETC now has a yoke variant available for purchase.
The High Output version of the Pro One-Cell yields 8700 field lumens and is available in 2700 K and 3000 K color options. Featuring the same optics as its recessed counterpart, the new Pro One-Cell High Output variant has an adjustable yoke that can be mounted or clamped in spaces that were once challenging to light.
All ArcSystem Pro solutions are designed for “ease of installation, high-quality light, and smooth dimming”.

France - 25 years after the launch of the 15” point source cabinet PS15, Nexo has unveiled the P15, its new top-of-the-range 2-way passive/active speaker which offers a combination of heritage and contemporary design engineering.
This model completes the P+ Series, a range of powerful compact speakers which offer advantages of scalability, compatibility and performance to multiple market sectors, many of which are currently adapting to new operational models.
“The versatility of the P+ Series is especially relevant at this time,” comments Gareth Collyer, Nexo’s sales & marketing director. “As venues and production companies have to redefine indoor and outdoor audience areas to accommodate social distancing, the portable power and interchangeability of the P+ Series cabinets is very useful. The P15 is the ideal multi-purpose audio product for theatres, cu

USA - Every night in December, America’s ‘Steel City’ was transformed, taking on the air of a holiday village, courtesy of a Vincent Lighting Systems (VLS) design that featured Chauvet Professional COLORado Solo 1 fixtures.
An alternative to Pittsburgh’s traditional Light Up The Night public gathering, which was cancelled for the first time in 60 years in 2020 due to the pandemic, the reimagined event created an organic drive-by experience on the city’s streets by adorning the downtown district in brilliant seasonal colours. Vincent Lighting was brought on board by Flyspace Productions, which produced the event in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.
“Instead of running our annual big event for one day we adapted and pivoted to light up many buildings for the holiday season,” said Noland Jenkins, production manager and lead designe

India - Assistive listening specialists Contacta Systems has entered the Indian market with a new partnership with pro-audio distributors, Audcomm.
The relationship will introduce the complete Contacta range of hearing loops, RF, IR and window intercom systems to Audcomm’s customers across the country.
Managing director, Puneet Kumar Kain, said the partnership will enable them to access new opportunities: “This is an exciting cooperation for Audcomm which will further strengthen our distribution network.
“With more than five decades of innovation in assistive listening technologies, Contacta’s high-quality portfolio will assists us in maximising opportunities which we couldn’t previously because of not having the right products in our range. We will ensure success for Contacta in India and look forward to a long-lasting partnership.”
During the

UK - Sound BAFTA Winner Robert Edwards is one of the UK’s leading television sound supervisor/directors and an elected Fellow of the Institute of Professional Sound. This accolade is the result of 45 years of work and a credit list of productions that includes opening and closing ceremonies for the Summer and Winter Olympics, and TV shows such as X Factor, Harry Hill’s TV Burp, The Masked Singer, Britain’s Got Talent, The Wheel, Michael McIntyre’s Big Show and Celebrity Juice
It was this last’s production during lockdown that saw him head into what was previously his home cinema and, with a few tweaks, turn it into a home studio / office, relying on a DiGiCo S21 mixing console to deliver his broadcast mix.
“Timeline Television, who are based at Ealing Studios, found that the producers of the show wanted to do

USA - When the 2021 NAMM Show had to be cancelled due to continued COVID concerns, the association pivoted its focus by creating a digital alternative known as Believe in Music Week, running from 18-22 January.
L-Acoustics reports that it is fully supporting NAMM this month by sponsoring a virtual marketplace booth, where it will be hosting a comprehensive line-up of eight video sessions on a variety of topics, all with live Q&A. Visitors can also book online meetings with L-Acoustics team members, chat live, and receive special access to swag and an exciting giveaway.
Of particular note will be the booth’s keynote session, Contour XO IEM Origins Story, moderated by FOH engineer Chris Rabold (Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé). This will be a Zoom ‘fireside chat’ discussion with L-Acoustics founder and president Dr. Christian Heil and JH Audio founder an

Italy - D-Tools System Integrator is a comprehensive software solution for AV system integrators that improves operating efficiencies by streamlining the entire project workflow - all through a data-driven process that leverages an extensive, integrated product library which now includes Powersoft’s product range.
Powersoft’s partnership with D-Tools provides D-Tools software users with Powersoft’s detailed specification, along with dealer-specific pricing, which minimises time users spend on building catalogues or AV proposals. The software benefits users further by managing budgets and sales, improving opportunities, accurately tracking revenue and expenses, and, due to all of this, increasing profitability, says the company.
In the webinar, Powersoft will teach users how to work with Powersoft’s products within D-Tools’ software. AV system integrators wil

The Netherlands - The buzz around the new Sony PlayStation 5 launch was unmissable in November as Sony HQ buildings worldwide exploded in a spectacular series of co-ordinated lighting and visual shows to herald the new flagship PS5 console.
In the Netherlands, Hilversum-based technical production company Smits Light & Sound (SLS) invested in 100 x new Robe LEDBeam 150s to make up the 200+ Robe fixtures - including 172 x LEDBeam 150s - that were needed to complete an ambitious lighting scheme created by brand agency BAAS Amsterdam and SLS for the ADAM Tower in Amsterdam Nord.
The ADAM Tower (Amsterdam Dance & Music) on the banks of the IJ River in the redeveloped docklands area close to Amsterdam’s famous central station is a vibrant creative hub and a well-known local landmark.
It was the first time that Jeroen Smits and his SLS team had lit the 100m-t

Pistol Package - Trainspotting director Danny Boyle is to make a six-part TV series about 1970s punk icons the Sex Pistols. Based on guitarist Steve Jones's memoir, it will star Anson Boon as John Lydon and Louis Partridge (Enola Holmes) as Sid Vicious. Filming is due to start in March for US TV network FX. No UK broadcaster has been announced yet.
"Imagine breaking into the world of The Crown and Downton Abbey with your mates and screaming your songs and your fury at all they represent," said Boyle, announcing his new project. "This is the moment that British society and culture changed forever. It is the detonation point for British street culture, where ordinary young people had the stage and vented their fury and their fashion - and everyone had to watch and listen.”
Air Conditioning - London’s 100 Club is to pioneer trials of

USA - ClearOne, a global provider of audio and visual communications solutions has launched two new webcams with the intention of “making true-to-life video collaboration possible for everyone”.
For users who want to upgrade from the basic camera included in their laptop or PC, ClearOne has introduced its most affordable webcam to-date, UNITE 10. The small, powerful webcam supports up to 1080p video quality and offers autofocus. It can capture five-megapixel images with a field of view up to 87-degrees. UNITE 10 attaches to any PC or laptop with a simple mounting bracket, and a 1.5m USB-A cable ensures simple connection to most modern computers. UNITE 10 is also available to dealers and distributors in 20 packs for commercial sale.
Meanwhile, the new UNITE 50 4K AF webcam introduces ClearOne’s new Auto-Framing technology to maximize screen use through intelligen

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