Details
UK - Backstage Academy has affirmed its commitment to safeguarding students entering the live events industry, after it was selected by the QAA to take part in a series of best-practice Covid case studies. The institution was recognised by the assurance agency for the measures put in place following the outbreak of the pandemic.
Located at the world-renowned Production Park in South Kirby, Yorkshire, the higher education institution was included in a case study report, acknowledged by the QAA (Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education) for its ability to adapt to the pandemic.
The Academy, which offers degrees, short courses and bespoke training for the live events industry, believes the special measures put in place for the next cohort of students in September wil

Details
USA - Every June, the historic Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis bustles with the sights and sounds of the three-day music and arts festival named in its honour. But like so many other events that bring people together to celebrate their communities, the one at the former railroad-bridge-turned-pedestrian-way fell silent this summer in the wake of the pandemic.
Ironically, the event site at the majestic bridge over the Mississippi, touched the people of Minneapolis again on the evening of 1 September, not with the rhythm of drums and clang of guitars, but by serving as a platform for a dramatic Red Alert display that reminded everyone of the toll the lockdown has taken on those who make occasions like the Stone Arch Festival possible.
Seth Scott, owner of Monkey Wrench Productions, led the team responsible for the compelling display. Positioning three Chauvet Profession

Details
USA - The Meyer Sound education team has returned with a series of MAPP 3D round table discussions every Thursday in September. Each session will welcome questions from attendees and be answered by a team of panelists. The sessions will also focus on different features of Meyer Sound’s new MAPP 3D system design and prediction tool.
The first round table - which took place on Thursday, 3 September - addressed overall MAPP 3D help, feature requests and bug reports, main graphical user interface (GUI), viewports, importing CAD and SketchUp drawings, and SPL vs. Attenuation in model view.
This Thursday, 10 September, the session will focus on primitives, modifiers, and tweaking SPL range and resolution for quick design.
The third round table, scheduled for 17 September, will teach attendees how to interpret Δ dB and connect to the Galileo Galaxy Network Platform,
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

Details
UK/EMEA - disguise has landed a spot in the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 index, which ranks the top 100 British private companies with the fastest-growing sales over their latest three years.
disguise was ranked at number 80 for the accelerated launch of its xR solution to meet the new market needs for immersive remote performance and virtual production. The company was also recognised as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in Europe, Middle East and Africa in 2019 according to the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 index released last month.
“As technology continues to transform every aspect of how we live and work, visionary and ambitious companies will continue to be at the forefront of innovation,” says disguise CEO Fernando Kufer. “We are truly proud and humbled to be recognised for our efforts and to be included among these industry leaders. As a resul

Details
USA - In an effort ranging from coast to coast - and also taking in the Pacific and Caribbean Oceans - the Red Alert RESTART event, organized by members of the live industry, cast a red glow on the night of 1 September. More than 1,600 buildings, iconic structures, and residences, as theatres, production houses, hotels, casinos, recording studios, opera houses, ballrooms, nightclubs, arenas, and individual homes were part of the event, which also included demonstrations in many cities.
The goal of #RedAlert RESTART is to urge Congress to vote for the RESTART Act and to support the efforts of ExtendPUA.org by pushing for an extension and expansion of PUA benefits for 1099 and freelance workers, i.e. independent contractors; and an extension of the $600 FPUC as part of a comprehensive pandemic relief package.
A four-and-a-half-hour livestream on Facebook, ho

Details
UK - Unusual Rigging has shared the sad news that electrical and design engineer Paul Taylor - known affectionately as PT - lost his battle with cancer on 17th August 2020. He was 64.
A statement from Robin Elias on the company’s blog reads: “PT started his ‘Unusual years’ in March 1988. He joined the company because he felt that as he was now a family man, he should have a quiet 9-5 job! It did not quite turn out like that. He soon became one of the foundation stones of the company. PT was a pioneer in the field of automation and quickly established his position as our Electrics & Automation Guru.”
Elias continues: “He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of Theatre and Automation and was happy to pass on his knowledge and expertise. In an atmosphere of impossible deadlines and challenging problems, none of us can remember PT ever raising his voice. He reta

Details
Furlough Extension - The chancellor is facing renewed calls to extend the furlough scheme specifically for the arts and leisure sectors, with the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee warning that the entire industry’s future is at risk without it. Julian Knight, chair of the cross-party committee, has written to Rishi Sunak claiming that the government’s current approach - whereby the job retention scheme will be wound down next month - renders its support for culture "highly inflexible".
"Moreover, ending the scheme for all industries alike in October does not reflect the unique situation faced by the arts and leisure sectors. These high-value sectors have become hostages to fortune; they are among the hardest hit by the COVID crisis, with 51% of workers still reliant on furlough, compared with 13% across all industries. However, while restrictions on activity

Details
Australia - ARX Systems has recently upgraded their MiXXMaker USB Mic/Line master mixer. The new version will start shipping this month.
Responding to an increase in demand for a professional 1RU solution that can interface with smartphones, tablets, laptops and other MiniJack and USB enabled devices, the MIXXMaker is designed to deal with a wide variety of protocols and connectors. As consumer level devices have become the program source of convenience in audio playback across most applications, the MIXXMaker not only provides all the inputs you’ll need but also the independent controls that you want at your fingertips for a truly professional mix.
The MiXXMaker integrates ARX USB, wireless and Analogue audio interface technologies into a compact 1RU package with a wide range of features including wireless audio, USB and MiniJack inputs, two balanced XLR microphone

Details
USA - Most people call the 65-acre site just off the Ojai Freeway the ‘Ventura County Fairgrounds’. Officially, though, its name is “Seaside Park,” a reference to its location on the Pacific Ocean. It’s a setting that makes for magnificent views, but the winds blowing in off the beautiful sea can play havoc with anyone trying to set up a large LED video wall, or run fog for a lightshow.
Victor Ortiz knows this first hand. The owner of Darvik Productions, he has been the production manager for Concerts In Your Car, a regular series of drive-in concerts at the fairgrounds since early June when he teamed up with the ongoing event’s producer CBF Productions.
Contending with the occasional wind gust is only one of the challenges Ortiz, lighting designer Martin Castañon, and the rest of the Darvik Productions team, has had to deal with at the 700-car capacity sh

Details
South Korea - The Seoul Foundation for Arts & Culture (SFAC) recently commissioned the installation of a Martin Audio MLA Mini /MSX loudspeaker array in its new Youth Arts Centre. Funded by donations, the facility has been designed for young people in the Korean capital to fulfil their artistic potential, and put them in touch with other creative hubs around the world via the internet.
Founded in 2003, the Foundation had been seeking to create Seoul as a platform where diverse values ​​of culture and art could be expressed, and The Youth Arts Centre was created as part of this activity. The facility itself had originally been donated by a private school foundation named Wonsuk.
Situated in the Chungjeong-ro district of the city, the 1,500sq.m space itself consists of a cafe, office, multipurpose hall, conference rooms and practice room, along with a complex fun

Details
Germany - The City of Oberndorf am Neckar in the state of Baden-Württemberg this summer played host to a five-week programme of outdoor live entertainment labelled Kultursommer 2020.
Created by events specialists dts Veranstaltungstechnik GbR, and taking into account the impact of the global Coronavirus pandemic, this ambitious undertaking required detailed logistical planning, careful organisation and the highest level of production support. The organisers assembled a wide-range of acts from a variety of genres for the outdoor shows, from top metal bands Rage and AXXIS, Classic meets Gypsy with Zorana Memedovic and Heinze Costabel, to comedy and cabaret with Heinrich del Core and Dui do on de Sell.
With more than 25 years experience in the sector, dts recently invested in a Coda Audio system, and decided that Kultursommer 2020, with its requirement for versatile hig

Details
Canada - As part of their commitment to education, CAST Group of Companies has announced a free version of wysiwyg Design is now available to all students and teachers, enrolled on a full or part-time lighting design course at a university, college, post-secondary vocational or polytechnical school.
Used in over 300 educational establishments worldwide, wysiwyg offers a 3D environment where productions can be planned, designed and programmed, risk free, offering students a safe virtual lab where ideas can be tested and experimented with.
With wysiwyg Design, you can create professional lighting plots and paperwork, and clearly communicate design ideas through high quality renders and animations. Should you wish to connect to a lighting console to programme shows, you can upgrade your free wysiwyg Design to a 4 universe (2048 channel) or 8 universe (4096 channel ) vers

Details
UK - The Association of Lighting Designers (ALD) will assist 68 emerging lighting designers through its Lumiere 20:20 mentorship scheme.
The original format planned to match 20 emerging lighting designers with experienced mentors but due to the generosity of ALD members who waived their micro-bursary, 38 applicants will now benefit from the one-on-one scheme.
The standard of applications was so high, says the ALD, that another programme -Team Lumière - has been initiated. It will welcome a further 22 applicants, who will work as a collective through an expanded version of the Lumière course programme.
The scheme expansion means the ALD will help 68 emerging lighting designers in total. Participants from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, England, Italy, Poland, Malaysia, Australia and the US have been chosen. Many of them identify as being under-represented in

Details
The Netherlands/USA - British loudspeaker manufacturer PMC has been chosen to provide the speakers for the presentation of an immersive audio experience at the first international exhibition devoted to the life of The Rolling Stones.
Entitled The Rolling Stones - Unzipped, this touring exhibition opens on 14 November at the Groninger Museum in The Netherlands. PMC’s speaker systems are also being used during the mixing of the audio soundtracks for the showcase event in Dolby Atmos at Capitol Studios, LA and PMC’s own Dolby Atmos mix studio at Highland Park in LA.
The Groninger Museum was host to a legendary concert by the band in 1999 and will house the exhibition until 28 February 2021, before it begins a tour around the world. Fans of the band will journey through the band's legacy, ending with a special finale experience that takes the visitors into an i

Details
USA - Three key live music venues in New York City managed by The Bowery Presents - Brooklyn Steel, Webster Hall and most recently, the 2,800-capacity Terminal 5 in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan - all feature Robe moving lights in their house rigs.
The lights have been specified by Luciano Savedra, head of lighting for The Bowery Presents which is the East Coast regional partner of AEG Live and owns and operates a diverse mix of venues across NYC and in other major metropolitan centres.
At Terminal 5, where Savedra also oversees and runs the lighting day-to-day, the 12 x MegaPointes and 12 x Spiider LED wash beams have greatly added to the flexibility of the existing lighting rig. The lights were supplied via BML-Blackbird.
Brooklyn Steel - on the site of a former steelworks and named one of the 10 best live music venues in America by Rolling Stone Magazine

Details
Lityhuania - The hall of Molėtai Culture Centre is a multi-functional venue with a capacity of 330 spectators. The centre is located in a small town called Molėtai, situated around 50 km away from the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.
“The stage of the hall where Prolights lighting devices are installed is 10m wide 11m deep and 5m high,” said Mindaugas Indrašius, CTO for Sonus Exsertus, Prolights distributor for Lithuania.
“Prolights products were selected based on the needs of the cultural centre and the genre of events. The activities of the centre are diverse so there was a need for lighting devices that were small, reliable and versatile. On a relatively small stage it was not possible to have many specialised narrow-purpose lighting devices therefore the versatile, strong light output and well-functioning Prolights lighting fixtures fully meet the lighting need

Details
USA - The feeling never gets old for Kenrick Fischer. It’s the one that happens at the end of every project, when all the work is done, and he gets to watch clients react to his finished lighting design for the first time. In the world of theatre, where he’s devoted much of his efforts, it is one of the highlights of an opening night.
“I often refer to this as ‘giving it away,’ in theatre,” said Fischer. “It’s why I do this. I love seeing the amazement on people’s faces when you transform a space into something wonderous and unexpected.”
Fischer experienced this feeling earlier this year, when he showed his completed work to the team at the Seattle Revival Centre.
The church had originally contacted him about upgrading its lighting system to make it more flexible, engaging, and broadcast-friendly. Drawing on his experience in theatre, Fischer

Details
China - Suzhou is one of the fastest growing major cities in the world, situated just 100km west of Shanghai on the lower Yangtze River. It boasts many interesting historic and modern attractions, not least its latest nightclub, the 800-capacity Vela, which opened its doors in December 2019.
Lighting designer, Andy Taylor of Gasoline Design, was called in to provide the dynamic lighting for the club and chose to use 174 Ayrton MiniPanel-FX for his design. He explains his choice: “I have used Ayrton products on nightclub install designs before, most notably DreamPanelTwin in Jewel, Las Vegas, and MagicPanel-R and MagicBlade-R in Omnia at Caesar’s Palace, also in Las Vegas.
The fittings worked with spectacular effect in both of those designs, so when I was looking for something different to use as the workhorse of the effect lighting for Vela, the MiniPanel-FX was a

Details
USA - COVID-19 has changed everything. “This pandemic has forced creative people to have to get creative about everything, even things we usually take for granted,” says Tom Worley, operations manager at 3G Productions, Inc. (3G), a live production, sales, and systems integration provider. Thus, this summer 3G turned its Los Angeles facility into Sixth Sense Creative House, a flexible production space able to accommodate live events, film and audio recordings, and live streaming from its sound stage.
Key elements in the success of this initiative are two DiGiCo SD12 consoles and a new Quantum7 console, as well as two SD-Racks fitted with 32-bit Stadius mic pres, all on a single Optocore network. The desks are also equipped with DiGiCo’s new DMI-KLANG card, an immersive in-ear mixing expansion that can be mounted directly into a console equipped with DMI slots for nativ

Details
USA - Danley Sound Labs has announced that Skip Welch, currently director of sales, will take on additional responsibilities as head of marketing. Welch’s new combined title will be director of sales & marketing.
“Skip spent his first seven years at Danley in the roles of Eastern regional manager and national sales manager,” said Jeff Pulliam, general manager at Danley Sound Labs. “He knows the audio industry inside and out and understands the growing niche that Danley holds within it. That, together with his native marketing sense and artistic abilities, make Skip the perfect person for the new role of director of sales & marketing.”
Welch added, “Although the pro audio industry, like so many industries, is facing difficult times, Danley is looking to the future with new projects and innovative technologies. Our team is energised and excited! I l

Details
Germany - Atlona has added two technical experts to its EMEA sales and engineering teams to help bring customers’ AV system visions to life. Mustafa Bostanci and Timo Schonmeier join Atlona as sales engineer and technical sales engineer for Networked AV, effective immediately. Both report to Kobi Levy, director of technical services, and are based at Panduit’s Customer Briefing Centre (CBC) in Frankfurt.
Bostanci joins Atlona from AVI-SPL in Germany, where as lead technician he oversaw the installation, inspection and approval of AV systems and collaboration solutions for their end customers. His expertise in software solutions is particularly beneficial for Atlona partners and end users transitioning to AV over IP systems. Bostanci also brings 12 years of experience as an IT and network technician with at Messe Frankfurt, a well-known trade fair and event organizer, whe
Page 585 of 3465

Latest Issue. . .