Germany - Neumann.Berlin has introduced the MA 1, an integrated hard/software tool for acoustic calibration and room correction, tailor-made for Neumann studio monitors. Calibration algorithms, jointly developed with the Fraunhofer IIS, ensure best possible monitoring quality in any environment - from acoustically untreated bedroom studios to professional control rooms, says the company.
The system consists of an individually calibrated Neumann measurement microphone and the corresponding software for Mac and PC.
“The Neumann studio monitor portfolio is experiencing an enormous increase in demand; in some cases more than 60% compared to the previous year,” explains Ralf Oehl, CEO of Neumann.Berlin.
“According to user feedback, one of the main reasons is that

USA - ETC has introduced the SolaFrame Studio automated luminaire, a fanless, convection-cooled fixture. Audibly invisible and visually impactful, the fixture’s feature set is designed for ‘exquisite projection control and gorgeous colour in a compact package’. Designed for theatres, concert halls, opera houses, film/TV broadcast studios and houses of worship, it uses a 300 watt High CRI Bright White engine to produce 10,000 lumens.
The fixture’s convection-cooled engine allows for completely fanless operation. SolaFrame Studio’s features include a high quality 13-lens optic system with patented Lens Defogger, powerful 5.5 - 57° zoom, CMY / CTO-Linear colour mixing system, seven position plus open replaceable colour wheel, full-curtain framing system for total control of beam shaping, 16-blade iris for tight beam effects, light diffusion with additional, optional

Europe - DirectOut named Audiosales (Italy) as Distributor of the Year during the company’s recent Insider event. DirectOut also recognised the exceptional performances of tm stagetec systems (Australia) with the award Rookie of the Year award, while Lawo BVBA (Netherlands) took the Prodigy of the Year accolade.
Jan Ehrlich, CEO of DirectOut, states: “Our cooperation with Audiosales has constantly developed over the past 10 years and we appreciate Audiosales’ professional performance in service and support across the pro audio and broadcast segments in Italy. It’s another success story and this award expresses a well-deserved acknowledgement for their great job.”
Marco Alterini, sales director of Audiosales adds, “Receiving this award is of great satisfaction for us, not only because of a great year, but also because it is the tangible proof of what kind of
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

UK - One of the more widely acclaimed, and viewed, virtual concerts during lockdown has been the recent live internet performance from psych-pop stars, Glass Animals.
The Oxford-based quartet were all set to tour their chart-topping Dreamland album this Spring until lockdown came along. When their lighting team (Cassius Creative) were eventually called into play (by tour/production manager, Simon Lutkin), it was to produce a viewable online show only (Live In The Internet) -a dynamic concert masterminded by the band’s inventive front-man, Dave Bayley.
Set up nearly five years ago by Chris 'Squib' Swain and Dan Hill) Cassius Creative dipped into their armoury of GLP fixtures and at the same time became one of the first adopters of the new JDC Line hybrid strobe batten. This combines a powerful linear white strobe element and two separate RGB LED pixel ma

Finland - The Finnish Sports Museum housed at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki has recently re-opened to the public with a completely revitalised permanent exhibition after extensive renovations closed the venue for five years.
The new exhibitions celebrate Finnish sport using the best of what modern technology has to offer, including a Genelec Smart IP audio solution. All audio, video and control technology was supplied by AV integration specialists Studiotec Oy, with AV and sound design by building services engineering experts, Granlund Oy.
Granlund’s Aki Päivärinne and Timo Muurinen were responsible for the AV design. “Our aim was to put the visitor in the middle of the action, to make them feel as if they are really there,” says Päivärinne. “It’s hard to think of any sport where sound is not a crucial part of the experience. Sounds from various sports

USA - LEA Professional has announced a partnership with Polaris Controls to serve the company’s growing customer base in Latin America and the Caribbean. With both organisations led by teams of recognised industry veterans, the partnership will seek to further enhance LEA Professional’s growing customer base in these international markets.
Polaris Controls has been operating in the pro audio industry for over a decade. Co-founder Ariel Enrique Gutiérrez comments, “The AV industry across all verticals is changing and it is imperative that companies move with that change. LEA Professional is agile and dynamic and can easily respond to the changes in the market, not to mention their solutions are intuitive, easy to use and built with integrators in mind.
“LEA understands the importance of customer care and engaging with your audience via digital tools. They are n

UK - Polar has been appointed as the UK and Ireland distributor for AMX, a part of Harman Professional Solutions.
AMX is dedicated to integrating AV solutions for an IT World, solving the complexity of managing technology ‘with reliable, consistent and scalable systems comprising control and automation, system-wide switching and AV signal distribution, digital signage and technology management’. AMX systems are deployed worldwide in conference rooms, homes, classrooms, network operation/command centres, hotels, entertainment venues and broadcast facilities.
AMX is dedicated to integrating AV solutions for an IT World, solving the complexity of managing technology with ‘reliable, consistent and scalable systems comprising control and automation, system-wide switching and AV signal distribution, digital signage and technology management’. AMX systems are deployed

UK - #WeMakeEvents, the campaign to support the live entertainment sector during the COVID crisis, is hosting an online Speakeasy from Monday 30 November to Friday 8 January. This new virtual space will deliver skills workshops, support sessions for finance and wellbeing, ‘fireside chats’ with some of the industry’s greats, and plenty of entertainment. All industry professionals are invited to join in and connect with colleagues during what will likely be a difficult festive period for many.
The Speakeasy will run regular quizzes, webinars, Q&A clinics and training sessions, and will host a forum on Discord which will be open at all hours for people to seek and share advice.
On the agenda is a highly anticipated live conversation between former Cirque du Soleil artists Laura-Ann Chong and Andy Buchanan, advice on motivation through these difficult times, pl

France - The Georges-Pompidou Cultural Centre in Vincennes near Paris will be the first venue in France to be equipped with an Arthur followspot, the latest addition to Robert Juliat's range of LED followspots.
With nearly 800 events a year, the town of Vincennes offers a rich cultural life and has three venues with quality facilities, including the Georges-Pompidou Cultural Centre. The 525-seat venue hosts many shows throughout the year during the cultural season, including music, theatre, dance, comedy and shows for younger audiences.
The Cultural Centre wanted to replace its 1200W HMI RJ Korrigan followspots and was looking for an LED model. "It was important for us to play the safety card in regard to quality and, of course, the feedback we had on the Robert Juliat luminaires. In addition, I personally consider LED equipment to be the future of our technical profes

UK - Following the success of the Backup Pumpkin Challenge, which ran for its second year this Halloween, the technical entertainment charity has announced the launch of the Backup Christmas Challenge.
The challenge will see members of the creative and technical entertainment industries battle it out in a number of categories to see who can reign supreme and put their lighting, design and comedy skills to the test.
The categories are:
● Best Exterior House Xmas Design
● Best Xmas Tree Design
● Best Xmas Pet Outfit
● Best Gingerbread Design
● Cheesiest/Funniest Xmas Jumper
The winners will be decided by an esteemed panel of judges from Backup, the ALD and the ASD. The competition is completely free to enter but those wishing to donate to Backup


Doorstepping - Actors Maria Friedman and Adrian Der Gregorian have launched a new production company to take the West End to the nation’s doorsteps. Backed by theatre figures including Cameron Mackintosh, Nica Burns and Sonia Friedman, well as Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group, Doorstep Productions will stage personalised performances from hit shows, in full costume, on streets, driveways and in gardens across the UK.
It is promising a "song-and-dance spectacle" featuring up to six performers, with audiences able to choose songs and scenes from shows including Les Misérables, Mary Poppins, The Phantom of the Opera and Dreamgirls. The company will also be offering a Dickensian carol singing experience over the festive period.
Alongside Der Gregorian, who is her husband, Friedman has assembled a group of West End actors, si

UK - South London studio Belly of the Beast has become the first facility in the UK to install a Neve 8424 console.
The studio pre-ordered the desk prior to its release in June, following an in-depth demo that highlighted its full range of features. Designed to offer a centralised platform between the worlds of analogue and digital, this small format console delivers the large format sound of the Neve 80-series console range and is well suited to studios like Belly of the Beast where esoteric and vintage outboard equipment play a significant role in the facility’s workflow.
“For studios like ours where you have a large and varied collection of preamps, EQs and interesting bits of outboard gear, this desk is ideal because it provides a very logical system to bring all of those elements together,” says producer, mix engineer and studio manager James Rand. “We no

USA - Fulcrum Acoustic's FL283T Line Array provides the throw and tight vertical dispersion needed to distribute uniform coverage to the multiple levels of seating at Heritage Apostolic Church in Holly Springs, MS, without energising the full vertical expanse of the open space.
Fulcrum’s Passive Cardioid Technology provided the broadband control needed to keep sound energy off the altar.
Church leaders decided to build a new sanctuary to fit their modern worship style as their congregation continued to grow beyond their original location. Their new church is an open two-story space with tiered seating along the stairways on either side. The stairways lead to a small balcony that wraps around the back of the room with two rows of seating. When designing the church, extra care was put into acoustics. Room geometries were developed to reduce standing waves while padded

USA - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell formed his band, The Dirty Knobs, as a side project 15 years ago. Although the band seldom ventured outside SoCal, it built up a loyal following throughout the region, not unlike a tucked-away club treasured by locals, but beyond the reach of outsiders.
That began to change with the death of Petty in 2017. No longer able to work with his frontman, Campbell (who is also the guitarist for Fleetwood Mac), began pushing his band into new musical directions, culminating with the release of their debut LP Wreckless Abandon. On Friday 20 November, the band introduced the new album to the world with a livestream from the Troubadour.
Although the influence of the Troubadour in the history of rock has been huge, the stage at the famous LA club is rather small. Nevertheless, Julien Reux was able to create a bo

Canada - As long-time audio solutions providers for the Canadian government, GerrAudio and Engineering Harmonics have a steady grasp on the needs of its officials.
When the companies’ principals were presented with the challenge of creating a custom podium microphone solution for the interim House of Commons, they turned to DPA Microphones. The custom solution is based off DPA’s 4081 mics along with a DPA TSM 4001 shock-mount, which fit into the cut-outs of the Parliament’s existing podium units.
“When you’re working with such a high-level client, there are no compromises,” explains Martin Van Dijk, senior consultant/partner at Engineering Harmonics. “There were really specific requirements for how the microphones worked, how they picked up the sources and, obviously, for their sound quality. Given the need for a clean aesthetic and simple solution, body-

USA - Billie Eilish’s Where Do We Go arena world tour, scheduled to run from March to September 2020 halted abruptly after three shows, so the recent <|I>Where Do We Go Livestream Concert re-united many talents from her creative team. Under the creative direction of Billie Eilish and Moment Factory, collectively they worked to script and stage this XR pay-per-view stream.
Lighting designer and director Tony Caporale from Tennessee-based Infinitus Vox was working as LD on the tour, and also came onboard in the role for the livestream concert, where he collaborated closely with lighting director Madigan Stehly of 22 Degrees who was working for XR Studios Burbank in Los Angeles which staged the performance, directed by Tarik Mikou from Moment Factory.
The overhead lighting rig at XR Studio comprised 48 x Robe Esprites. Six of the Esprites were running on a Robe Ro

USA - First Christian Church in Elizabethtown, Kentucky recently called in JCA Media for the latest upgrade to its campus. Having already completed several installation projects for the congregation in the past, JCA Media was on-hand to deliver a Martin Audio main PA system and ceiling speaker installation for the church’s worship areas, classrooms and children’s play areas.
The decision to go with Martin Audio was a simple one. “The tech directors were already familiar with Martin Audio and we always rely on their systems for these types of installations,” explained Alex Peake, integration specialist at JCA Media.
JCA Media installed three Martin Audio CDD10s as LCR speakers alongside a pair of SX112 subs flown above the stage to deliver smooth, even coverage across the space. “For this project, the CDDs merged together so beautifully within the main worsh

Poland - The Brzeskie Cultural Centre in the southwestern town of Brzeg recently reopened following a programme of modernisation. The centre, which stages a wide range of entertainment productions, cultural events, cinema and arts education classes, comprises three principle event spaces - a Main Events Hall, a Chamber Hall and a Cinema.
The centre enjoyed a significant investment in its facilities, aimed at providing its users and audiences with a first class experience. In order to furnish each of the spaces with a high quality audio system, the main construction company working on the project, MPM Development, recommended audio specialists Tommex to supply and install Coda Audio systems throughout - a choice accepted by the centre’s team. Each hall required a distinct independent design to meet its specific needs, using loudspeakers and amplification combinations drawn

UK - Opened in 1970, Blair Drummond Safari Park is located just outside the Scottish city of Stirling, the site is home to over 350 rare and exotic animals, including the country's only giraffes. Opened to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary this year, the park’s new World of Dinosaurs attraction features 20 full-size model dinosaurs arranged throughout a trail laid in a 10,000sq.ft area of woodland.
The models, which include a towering tyrannosaurus rex and a diplodocus are constructed with steel frames, covered with silicone skin, and are controlled with infrared sensors that trigger realistic movements including blinking eyes, breathing stomachs, arm gestures and head movements.
Since the park opens well after dark in the winter months and also hosts special events for Halloween and Christmas, management were clear that lighting would be an integral part of the new

USA - DCR Nashville and lighting designer Nathan Alves, a partner in Darkroom Creative in Franklin, Tennessee, answered the Live Event & Entertainment Professionals’ call to action by bathing some of Nashville’s leading landmarks in red light on 1 September. Their contribution to the WeMakeEvents #redalertRESTART initiative was the Mobile Visual Art Platform (MVAP) outfitted with 38 Claypaky Scenius fixtures.
The MVAP rolled through Music City with surgical precision, lighting up the Tennessee State Capitol, the AT&T Building (popularly known as the Batman Building), the Ascend Amphitheatre, downtown’s Bank of America building the Shelby Street Bridge and the neo-classical Parthenon.
Nathan Alves and DCR Nashville’s owner and president Howard Jones had been sharing news on COVID-19’s impact on the Nashville live event industry when Alves sent an ema

UK - Apparel and tech brand STNDBY has launched its flagship range of sustainable clothes and accessories, designed for crew and creatives.
STNDBY (www.STNDBYworld.com) was conceived by lighting and production designer Tom Campbell and host, producer and entrepreneur James Murden to offer clothing and accessories that are ‘as functional as they are fashionable’. With partnerships in place with companies such as Avolites and Dirty Rigger and offering customisation, gifting options and tour swag, STNDBY’s products are designed ‘to work and built to last’.
“We’ve spent almost two years researching the problems crew face finding work gear and developing these products to solve those problems,” said Campbell. "We’re so proud of the incredible feedback we’ve had throughout our testing phase and can’t wait to s

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