Glyndebourne Cancels - All remaining Glyndebourne Festival 2020 performances have been cancelled. This follows the earlier cancellation of Festival performances up to 14 July, as announced. Following Government advice, the Glyndebourne site remains closed.
Executive chairman Gus Christie states: “We maintained our optimism for as long as possible. Glyndebourne is a relatively small charity but with big ambitions, driven by the belief that opera can transform lives. The Festival receives no public subsidy and our financial independence means that we are reliant on ticket sales to be able to operate. With this source of income now gone, it’s not just our future that’s at risk – the immediate livelihood of over 400 seasonal staff and artists has vanished. We have started

Europe - Ayrton has appointed Kseniia Igoshkina as the latest member of its international sales team. Based in Detmold, Germany, Igoshkina is responsible for emerging markets across the Baltic countries, the CIS states and South America.
Igoshkina joined Ayrton at the end of 2019, since when she has quickly established her position by appointing new distributors in Belarus, Armenia, Romania/Moldova, Colombia, Panama and the Caribbean. Her previous experience includes two years at Astera LED Technologies as key account manager based in China, after which she relocated to Europe to look for new challenges.
“My first experience of Ayrton was its famous lightshow,” she says. “I was immediately blown away by their unique products. Now, a few years later, I am working for this amazing company and I couldn’t be happier.
“Ayrton’s approach is very different f

USA - ADJ has announced the immediate availability of the new Focus Spot 5Z LED-powered moving head spot luminaire. Building on the success of ADJ’s popular Focus Spot 4Z, the new 5Z model takes the same LED engine and compact body, but adds additional beam-shaping tools to give lighting designers increased creative potential.
As with the 4Z, the Focus Spot 5Z is built around a 200W cool white LED engine, which offers an impressive 50,000 hour lifespan. This is focused through high quality optics to allow the fixture to punch out sharp GOBO projections, in vibrant colours, that are equally suited to adding texture to a stage as they are to generating aerial effects over a dancefloor.
Motorized focus, which allows for pinsharp Gobo projections over variable distance, is the signature feature of the entire ADJ Focus Series. In addition, the Focus Spot 5Z inherits the 4
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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

UK - Harman Professional Solutions and UK distributor Sound Technology have announced immediate availability of the new AKG K371-BT professional studio headphones. The AKG K371-BT joins the previously announced AKG K361-BT headphones in the range.
AKG K361-BT and K371-BT headphones are designed for mobile artists, engineers, podcasters and beatmakers who want the flexibility of wired or wireless connectivity combined with studio-quality sound.
The K361-BT and K371-BT feature an over-ear, closed-back design that is precision-engineered to reproduce natural, balanced audio in exceptional detail, so users can make more confident decisions when mixing and editing. With a frequency response of 15 Hz to 28 kHz in the K361-BT and 5 Hz to 40 kHz in the K371-BT, they deliver “the deepest bass and highest highs in their class”.
Both models offer the convenience of swit

Europe - BroaMan has announced that it will now offer its Multipurpose Fibre Extender for video, audio and intercom (MUX22) with 12G-SDI interfaces - to support greater resolution, frame rates and colour fidelity.
The 12G addition to the existing 3G support means that BroaMan will not only continue to support 4K SDI transport formats but also routing and transport of high bandwidth data streams, such as 10G IP traffic for SMPTE 2110. Uniquely, the company offers not only single-mode but also multi-mode options for 12G fibre transport.
BroaMan technical sales manager Maciek Janiszewski comments: "12G migration is our step into the future. Our customers have been asking about 12G and IP technologies, and the new hardware upgrade will allow us to meet all modern requirements; it means we can offer pure 12G-SDI, pure IP or a mixed 12G-SDI and IP transport solution.”

USA - For 11 years, country music lovers in the Valley of the Sun, Phoenix, have gathered for the KNIX BBQ and Beer Festival, enjoying on stage performances, along with things like a petting zoo, games and popular food pits. With this year’s live event postponed, HDE Agency, its organiser, has moved the festival online with a series of five livestreamed Saturday shows.
They don’t have a petting zoo (viewers will have to rely on their own dogs and cats for that), and they’re not cooking up any finger licking good treats, but the livestreams are offering generous servings of country music. Supporting these performances are a John Garberson-designed lightshow that features Chauvet Professional Maverick and Rogue fixtures supplied by Creative BackStage. (Pro Production provided the audio.)
Taking place on a temporary stage in a converted studio in the Creative Backst

UK - Global Infusion Group’s catering divisions GIG and Eat to the Beat are usually in action at venues, TV studios and event sites all over the world feeding the stars. With theatres, arenas and convention centres closed and concerts, sporting events, festivals, conferences, live performances and filming on hold due to the coronavrus pandemic, the award winning company has quickly adapted its operations to deliver catering to the NHS and other keyworkers on the frontline during this extraordinary time.
Working together, GIG and Eat to the Beat have been catering for 15 NHS and key workers sites across Buckinghamshire. This includes two hospitals, outreach sites and the IT department, delivering between five and 200 meals per day, Monday to Friday, with a top up on Fridays to ensure people have access to food across the weekend. In addition, GIG and Eat to the Beat support

USA - Emmy Award-winning camera operator George Prince III has worked on his fair share of high-profile events. With credits including the Oscars, American Idol and the Superbowl, plus a whole host more, he has proven himself in some of the most watched and most demanding live productions. Clear communication has been vital to the success he has experienced, and this is aided by his use of Point Source Audio’s CM-i5 in-ear intercom headset.
“When I first became a camera operator, an engineer gave me a headset and said, ‘don’t lose it, it’s like a plumber showing up without a wrench’. That stuck with me, so I have always had my own headset,” recalls Prince. While initially owning his own equipment was due to good practice, this choice has become even more important in the current climate. “The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted that you should have yo

The Netherlands - Highlite International has unveiled the new logo of audio brand DAP, to mark its ongoing development. A new dedicated DAP catalogue accompanies the new look and feel of DAP.
“The audio-branch of Highlite, DAP, has grown and it is still growing,” says Highlite. “Over the years, DAP has become a household name for various artists, small stages, venues and events. Even for offices, shopping malls and fitness areas DAP offers the fitting audio solutions. With this growth a new image was necessary. Clean, crisp, clear and embodying the quality DAP is known for.”

Europe - ALC NetworX, developer of the the Ravenna technology, has announced Weigl Control as the latest Ravenna partner.
Based near Linz, Austria, Weigl s known around the world as Weigl Control, a specialist in high performance hardware and software solutions for show control. Weigl Control provides interactive and multi-media electronic controllers for theme parks, museums, sauna & spas, retail and more.
Created with a focus on embedded playback for animatronics and motion control, Weigl has expanded their hardware and cross-platform software offerings over the past decade to include large scale lighting, media and logic capabilities to support the production of some of the world’s best themed entertainment examples.
“I’m happy to be a Ravenna partner,” says Manfred Weigl. “The ProCommander X Series, which we developed in celebration of our compa

Japan - CÉ LA VI is a new luxury dining, bar and club lounge complex spread across the 17th and 18th rooftop floors of the revamped Tokyu Plaza Shibuya Fukuras shopping mall.
The CÉ LA VI marque is already well known as the top floor bar of Singapore's five-star hotel, Marina Bay Sands, and CÉ LA VI Tokyo has now opened as the first concept-imported restaurant in Japan for such a global brand.
A number of Martin Audio’s specialist ranges were specified by Shintaro Dobashi, director of the company Enter Sandman, who was in charge of the audio design. He explained, “The customer’s request was to connect all three sections of the venue; to create a restaurant that could be used commercially or privately - to make it ideal for a cool Tokyo clientele, and a place that lived up to the reputation of the CÉ LA VI brand.
“From the outset, we aimed at something

China - Brompton Technology has launched a Chinese version of its website. Including all downloadable documentation, as well as product and feature pages, it makes Brompton’s technical information readily available to the Chinese market.
A major part of Brompton Technology’s strategy in recent years has been to find ways of strengthening its support for its panel manufacturer partners, most of whom are based in Shenzhen. The new website is the latest in a string of initiatives, the first of which was the creation of an office in Shenzhen at the beginning of 2019.
Led by Elijah Ebo, Brompton’s general manager (Asia), the office is staffed by Chinese-speaking account managers and field application engineers (FAEs). In addition to employing native Mandarin-speakers, th

Europe - Panasonic has withdrawn from IBC 2020 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in September later this year. Instead, the organisation is focusing on supporting its partners and customers through its online initiatives, with the launch of its own Technology Experience Zone to help share expertise and information for the industry.
“It has been a very difficult decision. As much as we look forward each year to welcoming visitors at this important industry event, we must prioritise the well-being of our staff, partners and attendees,” states André Meterian, director of the Professional Video Systems Business Unit for EMEA.
“In the meantime, we will focus on creating additional activities and work with partners and industry leaders to continuously develop new content for our Technology Experience Zone, including live streaming, webinars, video podcasts and training.

Europe - London-based Capital Sound, long-time audio supplier to the Welsh rockers, deployed an all-Outline system for the European leg of their Kind 2020 tour, in support of their new album released in late 2019.
The tour made 13 stops across Spain, France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Italy, taking in a variety of venues. Capital Sound provided a total Outline inventory including 28 Superfly enclosures for the main system plus 12 Mantas 28 cabinets for side hangs, six LIPF-082 stage lip-fill speakers and 12 GTO-SUB subwoofers. System control was from a single Outline Newton FPGA processor.
The band’s long-serving sound engineer Dave Roden was at FOH. He commented, “Nick Boulton and I have found Superfly to be an exceptionally good sounding and flexible cabinet. It has a very flat, consistent response which reacts very well to EQ and copes easily

Australia - ClearOne has announced a new distribution agreement with Audio Visual Distributors (AVD), headquartered in Queensland Australia to represent ClearOne’s full line of audio conferencing, visual collaboration, and AV networking solutions.
"AVD’s experience in the AVIT Australia and New Zealand market is second to none with prime focus on customer service and support,” noted David Gledhil,l regional sales consultant, UK, Ireland, Benelux, Oceania at ClearOne. “ANZ is an important market for us and we are looking forward to working with AVD to serve our channel partners and customers in the region who will effectively offer full commercial and technical value from pre-sales thru post-sales support.”
"We are delighted to partner with ClearOne as a leader in voice and visual communications solutions for changing workspace demands,” stated Simon Fourie,

UK - Ampetronic and USA-based Williams AV have announced a pan-European strategic partnership, as well as a distribution partnership for the UK and Ireland.
From 1July, Ampetronic will provide in-region technical and sales support for Williams’ European distribution partners and customers. Ampetronic will also provide European warehousing and logistics support to ensure rapid stock availability across the region for both Williams and Ampetronic product ranges.
In addition, effective 1 May, Ampetronic will become Williams AV’s exclusive distribution partner in the UK and Ireland, offering Williams’ broad product portfolio to its customers.
Ampetronic and Williams AV are both long-standing global champions for hearing accessibility, each of them leading their technology fields in assistive listening solutions. Ampetronic is a market leader in hearing loop tec

UK - Tony Kingsley, a former PLASA chairman, industry maverick and disco lighting pioneer, passed away on Friday 8 May 2020 after a long illness.
If the early 90s marked the period when Tony Kingsley was in the chair of PLASA, it was a decade earlier, when the trade association was still known as BADEM, that he achieved his finest moments, writes Jerry Gilbert.
Tony ran the UK operation of Cologne-based Avitec Electronics GmbH, arguably the pioneers of the ‘superdisco’, who ran operations in four countries.
A former Roger Squire’s store manager, Tony set up Avitec Electronics UK in Hitchin at the end of 1979, and became distributor for the vanguard of popular lighting helicopters, scanners, ‘flowers’ and other effects - mainly from Spain and Italy - that would quickly populate nightclub ceilings and redefine the new disco genre. These included K

UK - Following the death of Alan Jacobi in April, Unusual Rigging has announced that Jacobi’s son Tom Harper will take on the role of managing director, with Jacobi’s wife Peta appointed as chairwoman. Beyond this change, the Board will continue to lead the Unusual team, directing the overall strategy of the business and assessing how best to respond to all future opportunities and challenges.
“The consequences of losing AJ are great,” says Harper, “and his absence will be felt, both by his family, colleagues, and the industry as a whole for many years to come. As a business, there are obvious implications that need to be addressed which in turn, honour AJ’s wishes regarding succession. AJ shared with Peta and myself that after he was gone, Peta would become the company Chairman, and I would become the MD”.
This strategy was recently reviewed and approve

USA - Magmatic atmospheric effects has introduced Prisma, a range of advanced UV LED lighting products with weatherproof IP65 rating.
Designed for use in clubs, EDM events, glow paint gatherings, or any production with a UV element, Prisma’s IP65 rating and fanless design mean they can be used in even the most challenging environment, says the company. Compact, lightweight and easy to handle, a variety of narrow to wide beam angles are available.
Prisma combines true 365nm UV output for long and wide throw performance with the control and efficiency of LEDs. Because Prisma uses high quality, medical grade LEDs that emit UV light in the 365nm range, no visible light is emitted, meaning only the UV reactive material glows and nothing else.

USA - Operating within the Metropolitan School District of Washington Township, North Central High School in Indianapolis, Indiana, offers a comprehensive educational curriculum as well as opportunities for participation in the performing arts.
The performing arts programme utilises two performance spaces highlighted by a 1450-seat theatrical auditorium. Theatre manager Shaun McIlquham recently integrated a new inventory of Siren Series LED Followspots from Altman Lighting.
“This is my second year teaching at NCHS and in our performance season we do four theatrical shows, a Junior spectacular showcase, and then we also assist the middle school with their annual production as well,” began McIlquham. “In our performance space, we are way overdue for a renovation as we still have the original dimmers from the 1960s. In a production a few years ago the lighting syste

Australia - With a CV that spans everything from rock ’n’ roll to opera, Andrew Crawford (aka The Mix Wizard) has been revealing his mixing secrets to a global YouTube audience through his MixWizard Sessions.
In an ongoing video series that kicked off at the end of March, Andrew, from Allen & Heath’s Australian distributor, TAG, has already racked up almost 20,000 views and covered topics ranging from how to use SQ’s onboard compressor as a de-esser to setting up A&H mixers for live webcasting. There have even been guest appearances from Allen & Heath's MD Rob Clark in a run of four episodes where The Mix Wizard admirably matches up to Rob in a fierce compressor 'nerd-off'.
“In normal times my world is all about connecting with the audio community in Australia, and I’ve driven thousands and thousands of miles in the Ampervan to run SQ, Avantis

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