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USA - Glenn Becker, the Entertainment Services and Technology Association (ESTA)’s first president, passed away on 19 June aged 70.
“Glenn’s vision was about bringing the industry together to make it a better industry”, says ESTA. “He thought that competitors could come together and share ideas and solutions to make business easier and more successful for everyone. Because of that vision and Glenn’s hard work, the Theatrical Dealers Association (TDA) was born.”
Becker organised its founding meeting in 1987 and served as the first president from 1987 to 1991. In 1994, when the decision was made to form ESTA, the TDA board turned to Becker to chair the committee that rewrote the bylaws and set up the new organisational structure. The board would continue to

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UK - With social distancing still in place and lockdown restrictions continuing to cause tension for many, London-based artist Marcus Lyall and not-for-profit arts organisation Illuminate Productions have transformed a soon-to-be-demolished office block in London Bridge into an interactive public artwork powered by sound.
In this new site-specific work, Lyall invites interested parties to join a Zoom call where they can scream or otherwise vocalise their feelings, with a light installation instantly illuminating the building in response to the voice. “The louder and longer your outburst, the bigger the response from the building,” say organisers. “The building interprets every voice and scream differently, to create a unique response for each guest. You can participate using any device that supports the Zoom app. Please scream responsibility.”
Screams will be p

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USA - Among the buildings devastated by the hurricane Harvey in 2017 was First Baptist Humble, in Humble, Texas, which had 18-inches of water in its sanctuary. Determined to rebuild its campus, the 111-year old house of worship gave itself a new name, United City Church, and remade its sanctuary interior, adding an advanced AVL system installed by Stark Raving Solutions that featured Chauvet Professional LED fixtures.
The new 1,200-seat church was scheduled to host services for the first time on Easter Sunday, 2020, but fate intervened once again in the form of the coronavirus. With the lockdown in effect, the church couldn’t reopen on schedule and had to limit itself to online streamed services. Almost two months later, however, with restrictions on public gatherings eased, the church was able to welcome limited groups of worshippers to its new sanctuary, following social
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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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UAE - The new Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai unites three lighting brands from Cooper Lighting Solutions - Zero 88 for entertainment-style control, iLight for architectural-style control and Ephesus LED sports lights.
The interior lighting and control systems together with all associated infrastructure were delivered as a turnkey solution during last year by Eaton Lighting Systems - now known as Cooper Lighting Solutions (CLS).
These aspects of this flagship project were managed by Peter Coles (business manager), supported by Martin Piper (iLight International training & support manager), Jon Hole (Zero 88 product manager) and Cooper Lighting Solution’s two EMEA project teams - one based in the UK, the other in Dubai, who together oversaw the process from design to final delivery in close collaboration with UAE-based lighting installation contractor, BMTC.
The v

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South Korea - Festival of Lights, an entertainment lighting company founded in 2013, has added 70 Claypaky Sharpy Plus fixtures to its inventory.
The firm designs and operates lights for numerous concerts, festivals and television programmes. As the K-pop phenomenon has gone global, Festival of Lights has also done overseas tours for Korean musical artists. Its comprehensive services range from rentals to design, installation, operation and maintenance. The company has particular expertise in show operations, and its young operators are known for their creative lighting designs.
The Sharpy Plus has two independent operating modes. In beam mode, it offers enhanced aerial effects and an extraordinary power output (over 300,000 lux at 10m distance). In spot mode, the light is diffused in a more even way, which means visual effects can be projected with excellent uniformi

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Europe - Prior to the recent lock down period in Europe, Japanese ‘android diva’ Hatsune Miku toured Europe again with production company Proper Productions and Capital Sound providing sound reinforcement with Martin Audio’s MLA loudspeaker array.
Hatsune Miku had previously toured Europe for the first time back in late 2018. The three European dates covered venues (including London Olympia) that were completely diverse in size and dimension, and the ‘Vocaloid’ music sensation, using a computer generated voicebank developed by Crypton Future Media, performed a shrill, high octane ‘thrash’ metal repertoire to an adoring set of fans.
Developed in 2007, Hatsune Miku is actually a 16-year-old blue haired virtual persona, who is seen onstage as a 3D hologram projection. Yet such is the Japanese fixation with anime culture she has over 2.5m followers on social

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Ukraine - The coronavirus pandemic didn’t dampen anyone’s enthusiasm for the 2020 final of singing competition The Voice Ukraine, which was broadcast live from the Kiev studios of TV channel 1+1, produced by Volodymyr Zavaduyk, directed by Tri.Direction and lit by Eugene Kostyra, also working closely with DOP Sergey Petrov.
To create an original and spectacular lighting design for this socially distanced television event, Eugene utilised Robe MegaPointes and Spikies as a key part of his lighting rig which were supplied, along with all the other lighting equipment, by Ukraine’s largest rental and production company, Alight.
It was the tenth season for the popular show and Eugene has been involved with the lighting since the fifth series (as well as two series of the ‘Junior’ edition).
Tri.Direction - directors creative team of the show developed t

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Europe - Sennheiser’s #DontStopTheEducation series continues with two Crew Call panel discussions.
A session taking place today, 23 June from 17:00 Berlin time / 16:00 London / 11:00 New York / 15:00 UTC will feature the live touring team of singer-songwriter Mahalia, whilst on 30 June, the team from Harford Sound will discuss how their production company adapted to the COVID-19 situation.
Also coming up in June is a new edition of the live RF Expert Round Table, as well as live webinars on pro headphones, multi-zone antenna systems and 8D audio.
In today’s session, Sennheiser hosts Andy Egerton and Tim Moore welcome members from the touring team of singer-songwriter Mahalia, nominee for Best Female Solo Artist at the 2020 BRIT Awards. Guests include Mahalia’s musical director and touring bass player Charlie Fowler, tour manager Carl Lewis, front-o

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France - Ranked the second most popular theme park in France (behind Disneyland Paris) Puy du Fou is spread over 500 hectares at Les Epesses in the heart of Pays de La Loire region.
When it came to specifying a site-wide digital comms upgrade recently, the facility’s long-term head of technology (and resident sound engineer), Samuel Briand, was clear that an expansive Optocore fibre ring solution would best serve the park’s requirements. He explained that previously they had worked mostly in analogue but this has now been replaced with parallel Optocore, Dante and AVB networks.
“The first consideration was the vast distance,” he said, explaining the background to the specification. “The park is very large, requiring several hundred kilometers of cable length, and it was essential that we could pass the signals without loss of quality and without length constr

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UK - PLASA has announced the two winners of the Stage to Studio competition for the best mix, which launched following the Stage to Studio live mixing session at PLASA Show 2019.
Antonio Pannese from Italy has won Best Original Mix whilst Andrew Mansell from the UK was chosen as the winner of Best Alternative Mix.
Marc Henshall from Shure comments: “Antonio Pannese demonstrated the best use of dynamics, space, and frequency balance while also applying creative effects for a personal touch. As an alternative mix, few demonstrated the same creativity as Andrew Mansell, who successfully transformed the mix into a spectacular dub-delay style piece.”
VC Pines, the artist whose single Indigo was mixed for the competition, paired the two winners at random with their pro audio prize in a video posted on social media. It was revealed that Antonio won the Gene

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USA - In June, ANSI's Board of Standards Review has approved three more ESTA standards. One is a new standard, and two are revisions to existing standards. All three are published, and are available for free download from the TSP website at tsp.esta.org/freestandards. They are also available for sale from ANSI and IHS.
These two standards were approved on 2 June:
ANSI ES1.19 - 2020, Event Safety - Safety Requirements for Special Event Structures
This standard - the first published Event Safety Working Group standard - is a revision to the 2018 version, correcting errata, and expanding on existing requirements. It covers structural safety requirements for any temporary structure used for special events ("temporary special event structures"), where such structures are used for presentation, performance, structural support of entertainment technology equipmen

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USA - Great Bridge Baptist Church in Chesapeake, Virginia’s contemporary-style services lift spirits with music provided by an orchestra, a choir, and a praise band. It’s a big production, but until recently, all of that effort only partially connected because the existing sound reinforcement system’s coverage of Great Bridge Baptist Church’s 1,500-plus seats was far from ideal.
Regional AV integration firm RTW Media, based in Richmond – serving the Virginia/DC/Maryland areas – designed and installed a big-impact, small-footprint sound reinforcement system centred on Danley Sound Lab’s point-source products. The Danley boxes give Great Bridge Baptist Church even coverage from front to back and from side to side, in the balconies, under the balconies, and even on the stage and in the orchestra pit.
“The sound system at Great Bridge Baptist Church was old

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USA - Soon after the Covid-19 lockdown went into effect, Events United owner Tim Messina and his team began transforming Studio Lab (their shared space production facility) into a livestream studio to produce events. They weren’t exactly sure where this effort would take them; they just wanted to keep busy and find a way to continue paying their team.
Turns out they did much more than that. In the weeks following the initial lockdown, Studio Lab has gone on to fill a variety of important roles in the community, including that of a fundraising tool. A variety of charitable groups have raised much-needed money during the pandemic by holding online benefit auctions at the Studio Lab facility in Derry, NH.
The latest of these is the Humane Society for Greater Nashua, which raised $105,000 in June through an auction livestreamed and produced by the Events United team at

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USA - The recent Rock of Ages revival at New World Stages in New York City was a resounding success, just as it was in its 2008 Off-Broadway debut at the same theatre prior to its successful six-year Broadway run. The show opened last June and after originally being scheduled to close in September was extended for an open-ended run, eventually shutting down when Broadway went dark in March.
Lighting designer Jason Lyons has been lighting the musical since that storied 2008 New York debut. “Back then it was a bit of an experiment,” he says. “We didn’t really know what we had and it exploded from there. It’s one of those rare shows that people can go back to over and over again and still have a really good time. I think that’s part of its success. You find new moments to enjoy every time.”
Rock of Ages is a jukebox musical that tells the story

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Italy - Outline has announced that on 24 June it will hold a free webinar in English on its (patent pending) WFIRs, the ‘warped’ filters featured in Outline’s Newton processors.
WFIR Filtering Technology goes live via Zoom on 24 June at 9:00 am and 6.00pm (Rome time).
Fernando Rey Méndez, who will host both sessions with the support of Paolo Calza, states: “The WFIR webinar will be an in-depth event, following the numerous requests from system engineers and audio technicians all over the world, from the ‘live’ industry, but also and perhaps even more from the broadcast, studio and permanent installation sectors.
“What are WFIR filters? How do they differ from FIR filters? But, above all, can the difference be heard and to what extent? How much computing power do WFIR filters require? Is there an ideal ecosystem on which this technology’s

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Sweden - Created to meet the surge in demand for livestreaming services resulting from the Covid 19 pandemic, Swedish production company, QTECH, has launched a new streaming division, QTECH Live, with help from an Allen & Heath dLive mixing system.
Reacting to changing circumstances, on the day after Sweden announced restrictions on live performances in March, founder Timmy Qvarnström and CEO, Kevin Qvarnström began the transformation of the QTECH warehouse near Gothenburg into a dedicated streaming facility.
Although QTECH already possessed most of the equipment required for the new venture, it needed a mixing system with the versatility and ease of use to handle tight setup times and a diverse programme of interviews, presentations and performances across three separate studio spaces.
In a move that typifies the community spirit shown by the professional

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Germany - With the slogan Autokultur – from Hannover for Hannover, an unusual series of events is helping to keep the entertainment scene in Northern Germany buzzing.
Every evening, up to a thousand vehicles converge on Hannover’s Schützenplatz fairground, where they tune in their UHF radios – just like in a drive-in cinema – to listen to stage performances, from concerts to comedy. It’s all a welcome distraction from life during lockdown, and an optimistic ray of light in a time when typical live events have all been cancelled.
Among the highlights of the early summer concert series were two sold-out performances by German rapper Sido. The artist used a Sennheiser SKM 6000 to wow the crowds on 11 and 12 May 2020. With its bright red, high-gloss finish, the handheld transmitter proved to be a real eye catcher and was the centre of attention during clo

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USA - After introducing a successful webinar series this spring, the Meyer Sound education team is launching a refreshed comprehensive summer webinar programme today, Monday, 22 June. The webinar content offers a natural progression of subject matter, including project case studies and specialty tools that cover a diverse set of solutions across all industry verticals.
“We have received overwhelmingly positive feedback to our webinar programme over the past few months,” John McMahon, Meyer Sound’s senior vice president, said. “It has been exciting to engage with our global network online while we are unable to connect in person, so we look forward to continuing the momentum this summer.”
While the programme follows the same schedule as the spring season with English language webinars hosted Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and Spanish language webinars Tuesday a

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USA - Altman Lighting has appointed Matthew Klasmeier as product development support engineer.
Klasmeier was previously employed as a field service technician for Vincent Lighting Systems, specialising in the installation and verification of new entertainment and architectural lighting systems. Working within the new Altman headquarters in Denver, Colorado, he will be responsible for overseeing current and future product development, as well as in-house warranty service, support and repair.
“We are very excited to have Matthew joining our team as he will serve as an integral part of the launch and support of many new Altman technologies,” says Pete Borchetta, vice president Altman Lighting product innovation. “His expertise within the lighting industry is undeniable and he will be a valuable asset in the development and customer service behind our entertainment

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UK - Audiologic has announced a new selection of products from Shure that will provide systems integrators and AV professionals with a complete conferencing audio ecosystem.
As video conferencing moves towards the top agendas, the expanded range of Microflex Advance products - with complementary software for design, management, and control - offers expanded possibilities for systems integrators to deploy Shure’s premium audio capabilities into more types of meeting and collaboration environments. These products are all natively designed to work seamlessly with each other and provide the market with a fast and efficient means to deploy premium audio, with IntelliMix audio signal processing in either device-based or software formats.
Shure’s conferencing audio ecosystem comprises various options including ceiling array, table and linear array microphones, a networke

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Germany - d&b audiotechnik has introduced a set of performance-enhancing capabilities for its Soundscape audio platform.
The latest feature updates include: Scenes, hardware-based scene memory capabilities within the DS100 Signal Engine and for the Soundscape software platform; two new room signatures within En-Space; and a configurable ‘Spread factor’ for function groups in En-Scene.
Scenes enables snapshots of all DS100 and Soundscape parameters (Matrix / En Scene & En Space) to be stored within the DS100 hardware memory.
En-Space room emulation software is an in-line technology, meaning to generate or expand the acoustic environment it does not use microphone feedback loops. Its outstanding simple setup and operation, make access to some of the world's most acoustically renowned performance spaces a reality for installation and touring both indoors
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