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UK – The 2020 final of popular TV show Britain’s Got Talent wowed millions of viewers with a spectacular LED screen stage set and virtual audience, powered by Green Hippo’s Hippotizer Boreal+ and Karst+ Media Servers.
Three active Boreal+ and one Karst+ were used for the main system, with the same amount again running as backup for the live show. One Boreal+ fed the main stage LED display, driving 6K content to 3mm screens from supplier Anna Valley, with another Boreal+ dealing with camera overlay effects and live camera shots. The Karst+ fed Art-Net data from two lighting consoles to an array of SGM LED Tubes.
This was a very different finale, with no physical audience present in the studio due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In substitute, more than 1000 live f

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South Africa - Viral video footage of an African National Congress (ANC) rally held at the Luthuli 9L Sports Grounds in Polokwane on Sunday, 8 November, attended by thousands not adhering to the social distancing regulations, has infuriated the region’s live events industry who have not been able to work for over eight months.
“We as the TPSA, SACIA and SA Events Council have lodged a complaint with the South African Police, in particular with the Provincial Commissioner of Limpopo, Lieutenant General Nneke Ledwaba,” said Sharif Baker, chairman of the TPSA. “We are absolutely disgusted at what has happened. It’s a smack in the face for the lives at stake, and literally a smack in the face of us in events who are abiding by the law.”
The Siyanqoba Rally in Ward 14 in Pokowane and issued by the ANC Peter Mokaba Region, included live entertainment and was atte

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World - When Kim Kardashian-West celebrated her 40th birthday this year, her husband Kanye West gifted her a hologram of her late father. Presented on the Holopops Ultra Holographic Projection System, the event was the debut outing for the innovative product but thanks to the occasion it secured a global launch that most manufacturers can only dream of.
Since then that single tweet has received over 35,000 quote tweets and over 18,000 retweets, with over 235,000 likes. Similar posts on Facebook and Instagram also went viral with over 14 million views of the hologram on Instagram alone.
Liz Berry, CEO of Hologramica and inventor and creator of Holopops, explains: “A social media frenzy started when Kim Kardashian West tweeted: ‘For my birthday, Kanye got me the most thoughtful gift of a lifetime. A special surprise from heaven. A hologram of my dad. It is
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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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Freelance Pressure - The government has been urged to do more to help performers and other arts freelancers as venues are shut again during lockdowns in England and Wales. Labour MP Chris Elmore told the House of Commons there were "growing numbers of freelancers, musicians, performance artists who are excluded" from support. Theatre workers face "adding to the queues at food banks", another MP said.
Arts minister Caroline Dinenage said the government was "working very hard" to help freelancers access support. She said Arts Council England had allocated £119m for individuals, on top of the £1.57bn available to venues in England through the government's Culture Recovery Fund.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden acknowledged that a third of freelancers in all walks of life had not been able to access the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, which the government confirmed

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UK - The Complete Laser Display (CLD) bundles, newly announced by Visual Displays last month, have received such positive market feedback that the company has decided to take the concept of all-in-one macro displays a step further. The result is the new ‘XL’ version of the bundles.
Explaining the rationale, company director Greg Jeffreys states: “When we originally announced the CLD concept, the intention was to go head to head with flat panel displays starting from 100in. But the feedback we received suggested that we could supersize this, starting from 130in, as an alternative to dvLED.” The resulting CLD-XL bundles are as easy to use and maintain as dvLED, he maintains, “and at a fraction of the cost.”
Foreseeing possible outcomes in the educational segment as a result of COVID-19, Greg’s company has been quick out of the blocks. In the new world of b

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USA - Smaller crowds equal smaller lighting budgets. Like virtually every designer working a socially distant show, Evan Antal faced this reality when he met with his client to draw up plans to light Le Getaway, a one-day October outdoor event featuring jam band masters lespecial and Eggy in the Camp Getaway Berkshire resort in Kent, CT.
Despite these limitations, the event’s promoter had set lofty goals. “I was asked to put together a package that delivered big rock show looks on a pretty tight budget,” said Antal. “Because of the pandemic and the limited audiences, it’s become a razor-thin balancing act to make a show on a budget work for everyone involved.”
Antal met this challenge in stunning fashion, turning Le Getaway’s small (24ft’ x 20ft) mobile stage into a panorama of overlapping colours. Swirling gobo patterns and fast-moving beams. Helping h

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Monaco - Organised by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, the Monte-Carlo Gala for Planetary Health was held on 24 September on the terraces of the Monte-Carlo Opera.
Dedicated to ‘Ocean, Earth, and Humanity’, an audience of ‘patrons, decision-makers, artists, and scientists’ gathered under an immersive dome.
For this event, designed and produced by the event agency TUFF Consult, the technical setup relied on five Modulo Kinetic and one Modulo Player, supplying 1,500sq.m of projection.
Since 2006, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation has been working to protect the environment and promote sustainable development on a global scale. Since its creation, more than 540 projects have been achieved by the foundation’s international branches located in France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Canada, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Spa

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UK - Shure supported students at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama who performed two new British musicals Catch Me and The Limit for their end of year productions with the equipment required to support a socially distant performance.
Final year students at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama are required to perform what is usually a public musical to a live audience as part of their assessment. Due to COVID-19, their annual performance of Merrily We Roll Along had to be cancelled, leaving students with no end of year project and no opportunity to showcase their work to industry connections.
In this case however, Adam Lenson director and course leader, Paul Barker got creative. The school made the decision to put on a socially distant performance which would be recorded live and streamed via YouTube allowing agents and industry c

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Portugal - In April last year Porto-based rental company, LVT Audio, purchased a large Martin Audio MLA Compact and Mini array. Director Miguel Lindo notes: “Since the very beginning of our company we have placed our trust in the Martin Audio brand.”
Their upgrade to MLA came after they experienced the system at the Rock In Rio festival in Lisbon, sensing that they would have plenty of deployment opportunities in a work roster that prior to the pandemic included all types of show, from arenas, festivals and touring, to corporate events.
They were helped in their choice and set-up by fellow countryman and friend, Joe Lima, who now works as product support engineer at Martin Audio North America. “He is the best professional we know,” exclaims Lindo. “In March this year he trained our entire team.”
LVT Audio’s most recent deployment has been at the hi

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The Netherlands - Throughout the summer and fall, more than 80 of ADJ’s weatherproof moving head beam and LED wash fixtures were used to light a temporary beach club venue in The Netherlands. Insight Beach Brabant offered visitors an opportunity to enjoy drinks, gourmet food and music in a large outdoor setting at a lake-side venue in the heart of the Dutch city of Eindhoven.
With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the cancellation of concerts and festivals, as well as the closure of nightclubs and music venues, opportunities for relaxing and socializing have been rare. Offering a solution to this, Insight Beach was a large pop-up beach club with a limited capacity that assigned guests dedicated day beds to allow for social distancing.
From the comfort and safety of their designated space, visitors could enjoy a full menu from resident chef Pascal Ariëns of Restaurant By

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Switzerland - The Muehle Hunziken (Hunziken Mill) in Rubigen, southeast of Bern in Switzerland, is a popular concert venue that has been in existence since 1976. Since the former windmill’s conversion, it has hosted more than 4,000 concerts, featuring around 15,000 artists of all styles and genres.
The Mill houses an elaborate collection of quirky works of art, much beloved of its patrons, and regularly attracts internationally renowned artists to play intimate shows in its 500 capacity auditorium.
In spite of the prevailing Coronavirus restrictions, this summer, the management team at Hunziken Mill took the decision to upgrade the venue’s audio system. The existing system was at the end of its viable life, and was proving unreliable and increasingly expensive to maintain.
Chief technician and resident FOH engineer at Hunziken Mill, Tom Binggeli, arranged for

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Germany - German Unity Day (Tag der Deutschen Einheit), celebrated on 3 October, marks the anniversary of the nation's unification in 1990, when the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic became one single, federal Germany.
Being the 30th Unity Day, the 2020 event took on special significance, with even more resonance added to the mix due to the challenges faced by everyone in dealing with life during the Coronavirus pandemic, and broadcaster ARD highlighted a very special TV show staged at the Metropolis-Halle in Filmpark Babelsberg, Potsdam which was organised by the Brandenburg Staatskanzlei (federal government).
The venue and Filmpark (dedicated to the history of moviemaking in the region) is a regular client of rental and production specialist Zound’z Unlimited Event Technology GmbH, also based in Potsdam, which was asked to provide ligh

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UK - Claypaky and CAST Group of Companies have launched the Wackit virtual lighting design competition based on a concept by lighting designer Durham Marenghi and his partner Jennie.
“Whilst planning this event, we had no idea that England would enter a second lockdown,” say the organisers, “and given that colleges are still open - giving our students access to lighting systems - we feel that this is actually a very appropriate time to launch our Wackit competition.”
Two side-by-side competitions require professional and student lighting designers from UK and Ireland to create a virtual video of their work from a model of the prestigious Royal Albert Hall. CAST will support Wackit with free WYSIWYG Educational Licences for the period of the competition for Professional LDs as well as a 12-month free Design Educational Licence for

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Italy - Since pledging to donate a percentage of the proceeds from the sale of its touring amplifiers to the Crew Nation charitable fund, Powersoft’s three-month campaign has generated €48,437 - and the company has since vowed to continue the incentive until the end of 2020.
Nurit Siegel Smith, executive director of the Music Forward Foundation - the charitable 501c3 organisation that administers and powers the fund - was full of praise for the substantial contribution already received from Powersoft.
“We are amazed by the incredible pledge Powersoft made toward the Crew Nation fund and for the crewmembers who are the backbone of the live music industry,” she said. “Live music inspires millions around the world, but the concerts we all enjoy wouldn’t be possible without the countless crewmembers working behind the scenes.
Their pledged donation will

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Europe - Elation Europe is marking 10 years in business this year. The company opened its European headquarter office in Kerkrade, the Netherlands in 2010 and has since grown to become an established player on the market.
To mark the anniversary, Elation Europe will celebrate with a variety of special activities in 2021. “Like so many other events in 2020, Elation Europe has decided to postpone celebration activities until 2021 when larger groups can again gather safely,” says the company.
“It’s really incredible to think how much has changed in these 10 years,” comments Frederik Afif, international sales manager for Elation Europe and one of a handful of employees who helped to start up the operation in 2010. “We started in a small office with just two sales people and some back-office support, a coffee machine and not much more.
“I was on the pho

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UK - Vaudeville Sound made use of binaural audio technology for the podcast Amazing War Stories with Bruce Crompton. Vaudeville Sound, an award winning sound design and mix company, introduced the idea of creating the podcast in 3D Immersive sound, to surround the listener in the true stories taken from museum collections to help safeguard the nation's historical treasures before they are lost forever.
As the shows were being compiled during lockdown, the voice recording and mix sessions were run remotely. Live output of the mix was shared with the director so the team could run through mix notes and make changes on the fly. Avid Pro-tools was used to edit and mix all shows with an array of tools from Nugen Audio, Noise Makers, Zynaptic & Blue Ripple Sound.
With detail of sound design and field recordings at film level, it was vital to use the correct sound

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USA - The crowds that normally fill the Rawhide Centre in Chandler, AZ, on weekends for headliners like Kayzo, Adventure Club and Nightmare weren’t there this October. COVID-19 restrictions saw to that. But the intensity that shook up the 13,000 sq. ft. outdoor venue for Relentless Beats’ aptly named The Pod Experience was impossible to miss, thanks to the driving textured tracks laid down by the EDM stars, the delirious reactions of the fans who were able to score the limited number of tickets, and some fast-moving lighting by Luis Torres.
Wanting fans to be engaged with the artists on stage, despite being separated by pods, Torres dialled up the intensity level with some extra bright audience lighting and bold aerial sweeps. “Relentless Beats came up with a really good plan for providing fans with a way to enjoy this kind of experience safely,“ he said. “F

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Greece - St. Catherine's British School in Athens, Greece, took delivery of Prolights fixtures as part of the audiovisual installation of the new building of the school. The scope of the project highlighted the importance of selecting equipment that was easy to use by students and staff, along with being cost-effective to run and maintain.
Consultant and lighting designer Vagelis Delivasilis evaluated the LED range from Prolights, as well as other brands, and found Prolights to be a suitable solution for the project. Kariotis Audio & Lighting, Prolights' distributor in Greece, in collaboration with the consultant, came up with a comprehensive lighting package that could be flexible, allowing the school to run medium-scale theatrical performances, music events, conferences and orchestral plays.
Delivasilis made diagrams with the chosen fixtures, while Kariotis Bros

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Canada - Bluesound Professional has announced the launch of the second instalment of its podcast and video content series called Surroundscapes, featuring ‘new and thought-provoking ideas from invited expert guests from around the world who are working to redefine the workplace as we know it in the post-pandemic world’.
This series is targeted at commercial A/V integrators, consultants, as well as business owners, interested in the idea of using A/V technology to create memorable immersive experiences in commercial spaces to help accommodate our new normal.
Hosted by Graeme Harrison, VP and GM of Bluesound Professional, Surroundscapes Series 2 is focused on the Future of the Workplace theme, exploring current trends, how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected things and what the workplace might be like as we look to the future.
“The workplace has been c

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USA - The Audio Engineering Society has announced the winners of this year’s AES Awards for distinguished achievement in the field of audio and service to the Society, presented during the Opening Ceremonies of the AES Show Fall 2020 Convention on 27 October.
The awards were presented in the online ceremony by AES president Agnieszka Roginska. The AES Show opening ceremonies are available on-demand for AES Show attendees at AESShow.com.
The AES Board of Governors Award, given to members rendering exceptional service to the Audio Engineering Society, was presented to Jorge Azama, for chairing the successful AES Latin American Conference in September 2019 in Lima, Perú.
The AES Honorary Membership Award was given to Imogen Heap, for outstanding contributions to the world of music and technology and to Karrie Keyes, for her leadership in creating opportunities f

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USA - Chauvet Professional has presented a cheque to Behind the Scenes for $25,000 from its recently launched ReSet Fund to be used to support entertainment technology members and their immediate dependent family who are seriously ill or injured, and to fund emotional wellness resources and training.
Chauvet announced last week that it will be donating up to $50,000 in funds to help live event industry members impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Following this initial $25,000 donation, Chauvet will match donations up to an additional $25,000 from participants who buy special fundraising ‘ReSet’ jackets, caps, truss gloves, and other merchandise at www.chauvetprofessional.com/resetfund through 30 November.
Behind the Scenes executive director, Lori Rubinstein, commented, “Chauvet Professional’s generous donation comes at a particularly important time for the char
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