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UK - After 28 years of consistent touring, the Stereophonics’ relentless quest to improve their stage sound and gain closer engagement with their audience continues.
At the request of the band, and specifically Kelly Jones, their sound techs were sent into overdrive, working on a radical approach for the latest arena tour. Long-term FOH sound engineer Dave Roden, using his preferred Martin Audio MLA loudspeaker array, sent his mix to a distributed PA system, running the length of a 60ft thrust from main stage, into the belly of the audience, with a small ‘B’ stage at the end of it.
By opting to play a third of their set right in the middle of the arena (including a solo Kelly Jones set), it would have left the band at risk of absorbing unwanted sounds off the main

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South Africa - Feed Our Crew, the South African fundraising initiative for freelance live event technicians, has received hundreds of applications as well as generous support from companies and individuals in the two weeks since it was launched.
Feed Our Crew, working in collaboration with People4Purpose, offers financial support to out-of-work crew through donations and was launched in response to slow state emergency funding payments.
Donations are converted into 1000.00 ZAR vouchers (around £50), which are distributed to qualifying recipients via their mobile phones. This is calculated to provide enough funding to support a family’s fundamental needs for a month.
The vouchers are redeemable at the major retailers ShopRite / Checkers and can be used to buy groceries, medication plus other essential utilities.
DWR Distribution has been one of the key sp

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USA - Harman Professional Solutions has announced the addition of 14 free live workshops available for registration through the Learning Sessions programme in conjunction with Harman Professional University.
Available workshops scheduled for the first two weeks in May feature lighting or audio experts who have extensive industry knowledge and experience working with various touring acts.
Topics include Loudspeaker Design for Airports, Festival Lighting Control and The Art of Making Productions Look Larger.
More than a dozen Live Workshops conducted and recorded in April are now available at Harman Professional University’s YouTube channel. Workshops include AV Challenges in Esports, Microphone Applications for Stage and Studio and Lighting for Churches. Many more sessions are in production for release in the coming mon
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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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China - LED lighting manufacturer Astera has repurposed its 10,000sq.m factory in Shenzhen to assist with the delivery of essential personal protective equipment (PPE) .
According to Astera’s CEO Norbert Ernst, the manufacturer was set to temporarily scale back operations in the factory as a result of lower demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he was approached by a contact asking if Astera would be willing to assist with the production and distribution of face masks.
“Naturally, I jumped at the chance,” says Ernst. “It offered a path to keeping many staff employed full-time which is great, and also helps contribute positively to the ongoing global demand for face masks which are vital to help meet the unique challenges of containing COVID-19.”
Ernst feels that having the factory working in this capacity will assist a rapid return to full LED ligh

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UK - The Association of Lighting Design (ALD) Awards for Excellence 2020 will launch imminently, “to offer an exciting, additional focus for students”, says the organisation.
The awards enable young designers to showcase their talents, bringing their work to the attention of experienced production professionals and the industry as a whole. Awards are presented to those who demonstrate strong lighting or video designs or skills in production electrics.
Categories include The Michael Northen Award for lighting design, The Fred Foster Award for Production Electrics (sponsored by ETC) and the Blue-I Media Award for Video design.
Johanna Town, chair of the ALD, comments: “The ALD Awards for Excellence provides an important platform for students on which they can hone their abilities to communicate their chosen medium. To be able to sell ideas and passions for a

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South Africa - Ayrton has announced Bespoke Entertainment Solutions as its new exclusive distributor for South Africa with immediate effect.
Based in Randburg, Johannesburg, Bespoke will distribute the full range of Ayrton products across the installation and rental markets, with a core focus on key products that best suit the South African market.
“Having recently taken on several installations and new technical personnel on a full-time basis, the door was opened to us for other opportunities, including becoming the distributor for Ayrton in South Africa,” comments Bespoke Entertainment Solutions’ technical director, Suren Lutchman. “With my experience mainly in sales, support and design of intelligent lighting solutions for the entertainment industry, I have always wanted to offer this service as well. Because the market within South Africa is very competit

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World - An app designed to serve as a pocketable all-in-one toolbox for the events industry has been released.
Toolbox, developed by UK lighting, rigging and previsualisation services company ETS, combines over 20 virtual tools, converters and guides in a single app.
Designed to make it easier for lighting, audio, and video technicians to get on with their daily tasks, Toolbox includes DMX, power, weight/length and currency converters; vehicle, wiring and knot guides; information for over 2,600 pieces of equipment; filter and gobo libraries; beam and patch calculators; a decibel meter, and more.
The app is currently only available for iOS devices through the App Store (£9.99 for a lifetime licence) but ETS is working on an Android version, to be released by September.

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UK/France - Showlight 2021, scheduled to take place May 2021 in Fontainebleau, France, has been postponed until further notice due to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. First held in 1981 at London’s Barbican Centre and usually taking place every four years, the enduringly popular lighting event is renowned for its industry-leading programme of papers presented by the great and good of the lighting industry, along with its often unique setting and many networking opportunities.
A statement from Showlight reads: “This has been an extremely difficult decision, which has been made in view of both the immediate effects and anticipated recovery period that will be needed by companies and individuals across the industry in the coming months.
“The state of the lighting industry, the probable extension of restrictions on gatherings and the effect that this is having on the

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USA - Serving people in a time of crisis is nothing new for Kaiser Permanente. The giant not-for-profit healthcare consortium began life in 1933, during the Great Depression, when a young physician, Sidney R. Garfield, opened a 12-bed hospital in the middle of California’s Mojave Desert to care for itinerant workers at the Colorado River Aqueduct.
Although much larger today (it has over 12m members), the nationally renowned institution remains deeply rooted in its community, as evidenced by its all-out effort to provide care during the current pandemic.
Kaiser Permanente’s gratitude to the dedicated healthcare professionals who make this extraordinary level of service possible is plain to see on many of its Los Angeles area facilities. There on the exterior walls, in bold and colourful light is a declaration thanking the ‘Health Care Heroes’ who are leading the

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USA - ESTA reports that two standards have been revised, and are being offered for public review.
BSR E1.6 - 1 - 202x, Powered Rigging Systems has been revised to correct errata in section 6.6, which addresses design factors for certain system elements. The public review only covers the revisions made in that section, and no comments regarding other sections are being solicited at this time.
BSR E1.39 - 202x, Entertainment Technology - Selection and Use of Personal Fall Arrest Systems on Portable Structures Used in the Entertainment Industry, is a revision of ANSI E1.39-2015, which is being updated for consistency with current industry practice and technologies. This standard establishes minimum requirements for the selection and use of personal fall arrest systems (PFAS) on portable structures in the entertainment industry. In addition, the standard esta

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USA - Professional camera and lighting rental companies have come together to collaborate in creating guidance documents for safely resuming rentals to the film/television/commercial production community in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The task group was assembled by the Production Equipment Rental Group (part of entertainment trade association ESTA). The objective is to provide a unified set of industry-wide guidelines that address health and safety challenges related to the rental of production equipment and ensure that any risks to production companies, studios, and customers are minimised.
The task group is working with other industry groups to ensure that PERG’s recommendations address client needs and concerns and harmonize with safety protocols developed by the studios and others, while also adhering to the recommendations of the CDC, OSHA, and state and

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France - Mass Hysteria shook the port city of Nantes two years ago, when they performed a show for the 10th anniversary of the Elvish. The metal icons selected this show for their 8 April 8 stream.
Throwing fuel on the flames of Mass Hysteria’s sound was a relentless Romain Dronne designed lightshow powered by a ChamSys MagicQ MQ80 with an Extra Wing.
Part of the Chirac Design team, Dronne turned up the brightness of his rig at key points throughout the show, transforming the relatively tight confines of Club Le Ferraileur into a ball of light. The close-in setting of the club made the show well-suited for streaming, since many fans would be watching on mobile phones with their relatively small screens.
However, beyond this “technical” consideration, the size of the venue also reinforced the close relationship that the band has with their fans according t

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The Audio Engineering Society has begun to announce programme details for the upcoming Virtual Vienna Convention, including three keynote lectures and the Heyser Presentation.
As a result of circumstances dictating the move of the convention to an online format, the Audio Engineering Society is bringing the AES Europe Convention directly to virtual attendees around the globe, with keynotes from AES Fellow Jamie Angus (University of Salford), Marisa Hoeschele (Acoustics Research Institute, Austrian Academy of Sciences) and Franz Zotter (Institute for Electronic Music and Acoustics, University of Arts and Music, Graz), as well as this year’s Heyser Presentation by AES Fellow Francis Rumsey (technical consultant, author).
Additional details on the AES Virtual Vienna Convention Technical Programme, including topics and events, paper presentations, workshops, tutorials, posters,

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Europe - Nexo’s Engineering Support Division continues its popular series of online webinars with a menu of topics which will appeal to sound engineers working with all brands of professional equipment.
Nexo is using Facebook Live on its popular channel to present these e-learning sessions, part of Yamaha’s extensive Audioversity tuition resource.
“We’ve carefully considered these sessions so that they will also interest engineers and venue owners/operators who may not yet be familiar with Nexo systems,” explains lead trainer Nicolas Poitrenaud. “We are confident that these Facebook Live sessions will provide skills and knowledge to enhance the business activities of many professionals, especially in these difficult times.”
The latest additions include:
Tuesday 5 May @ 10.00hrs: Fundamentals of Acoustics in English with Nicolas Poitrenaud <

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USA - Dance Studio Vol. 1 is the latest addition to the nightlife scene in Chicago’s River North neighbourhood. Filling the ceiling above its dance floor are 470 ADJ mirror balls, both static and kinetic, that mix with Elation Professional DARTZ 360 and Fuze Wash Z120 moving heads for a lightshow with a difference.
The new nightclub and event space, a renovation of a previous club that closed in early 2019, is a 350-capacity venue that hosts live music, DJs and other entertainment. Chicago-based AV design and integration company Craft Lighting was tasked with designing, installing and commissioning the space and came up with an immersive and nostalgic yet distinctly modern concept that goes beyond the nightclub’s second-floor dance area to include the outer alley, hallway, and stairwell.
Noah Craft, owner and lead designer at Craft Lighting, explains the Elation fi

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UK - More than 25 years after they catapulted into the UK charts, and 10 since disbanding to produce solo material, British rockers Supergrass returned to touring with audio rental house Britannia Row in February and March.
Describing his sound crew as being “amazing at their jobs”, production manager Adam King has, by his own admission, “loved” working with Brit Row and the Supergrass team for the band’s recent return to live music.
Supergrass were ‘lucky’ in the sense that they finished their seven date UK run - which culminated in two sold out shows at London’s Alexandra Palace - prior to lockdown. FOH engineer Max Bisgrove notes: “We had two fantastic gigs in London, and as these were my last two shows for what will no doubt be quite some time, it was good to go out on such a high note.”
King agrees, “The Ally Pally sound check sounded i

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Poland - The Culture and Reading Centre in the southern Polish town of Radlów is a local government institution that stages a range of activities and performances promoting the participation of the local community in cultural and educational pursuits.
The centre organises regular activities such as workshops, theatre and fitness classes, as well as one-off events encompassing everything from festivals and exhibitions to concerts and competitions. These feature not only visiting artists but also involve local groups, some of whom are resident at the centre. Music is a very important central theme for this vibrant and busy hub.
As a new establishment, the building required a high quality sound system in order to deliver the best experience for performers and audiences alike. The principal area to be covered was the centre’s ground floor Main Hall, a multi-purpose spa

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Europe - Spanish AV equipment manufacturer Equipson has appointed Netherlands-based Tau Audio Solutions as its audio distributor in Benelux, with responsibility for its entire range of Work Pro products.
For more than 20 years, TAU Audio Solutions has been a wholesaler and distributor of audio and communications systems. The company handles a variety of commercial and professional audio products including induction/hearing loops, microphone systems, voice alarm systems, rack and accessories. As well as selling products, Tau also provides advice and training to customers from its extensive showroom facilities in Groningen.
As Equipson's Benelux distributor, Tau will be responsible for handling the company's entire range of Work Pro audio products which include loudspeakers, amplifiers, mixers, microphones and control systems, as well as an extensive range of audio acce

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USA - Apollo Design Technology, the manufacturer of gobos, colour filters and lights, has announced the appointments of Connor Digan and Aaron Prins to sister company, AVID Labs.
Connor Digan is named a project manager for AVID. Digan graduated from Bishop Dwenger High School in Fort Wayne, and Purdue University in West Lafayette with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering Technology.
Joel Nichols, chief innovation officer for Apollo Design and AVID, shares, "It has been great to bring on Connor. He has done a great job of ramping up, leading the AVID team and taking project management to the next level."
Aaron Prins now serves as mechanical engineer for AVID. Aaron graduated from Rose-Hulman with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2019 with a concentration in Aerospace. Aaron did an internship at Precision Aerospace Corp last summer.
"We’re excited to have A

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UK - L-Acoustics Creations has recently appointed Nick Fichte to the role of business manager.
The appointment completes the existing new business team and “positions the division to make headway in key installation markets, leveraging the relationships and knowledge that Nick has forged in his 15-year career in the AV industry”.
Fichte first stepped into the AV industry when he was still a student, applying to work for custom installer, Audio Vision. He was offered the position and boarded a flight to Turkey the following day to assist on technology integration for one of the world’s largest superyachts. This experience cemented a vocation and led to his career progressing at Audio Vision where he became store manager of one of their Bang & Olufsen dealerships. Nick later held sales roles at London-based custom installers Olive Audio Visual and Inspired Dwe

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USA - ClearOne has been awarded a strategic new patent relating to power transmission for Power over Ethernet (PoE) systems by the US Patent and Trademark Office.
Awarded on 14 April, 2020, the patent describes a simple method for providing power to multiple devices in a ‘daisy-chain’ series connection using PoE. Use of the new method can eliminate the 100m Ethernet distance constraint for power and data transmission.
ClearOne’s technology disclosed in this patent brings powerful benefits for at least two important applications. First, it is useful for devices such as audio products including microphones and speakers, security and conferencing cameras, remote sensors, smart home technologies like thermostats and alarm systems, as well as computers and displays, all of which can be freely deployed anywhere within the reach of an Ethernet cable.
As an exam
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