Thailand - The Office of the Permanent Secretary for Defence recently upgraded its headquarters with Harman Professional Solutions AV, lighting and control systems.
Part of Thailand’s Ministry of Defence, the Office of the Permanent Secretary is responsible for determining strategic goals, executing plans, drafting policy and the inspection and monitoring of the Royal Thai Armed Forces.
Occupying a grand, nine-story building with multiple wings outside Bangkok, the organisation’s headquarters includes a multipurpose hall which can seat 1,500 and be divided into two separate spaces on demand. To ensure world-class sound, video, lighting and control for presentations and events, the Office of the Permanent Secretary deployed a range of solutions from JBL Professional,

South Africa - Days before lockdown, thousands of fans gathered at the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria to celebrate the 2020 edition of RAMfest, South Africa’s music festival for all things alternative.
This years’ line up included some of South Africa’s most popular alternative bands, including Facing the Gallows, Peasant, Man as Machine, Newtown Knife Gang, The Valley, Stoker, and Truth & It’s Burden. Highlights of the event included a much-anticipated reunion show by South African rock legends, The Van Coke Kartel and USA-based death metal giants, The Black Dahlia Murder, who headlined the one-day festival.
Festival organisers Real Alternative Music (RAM) once again contracted Stage Effects and Blue Array Productions to provide technical services for the event. Stage Effects’ Erik de Bruin has been working with RAM on the festival for several years a

USA - Mirror balls have been used to create atmosphere in dancehalls and nightclubs for almost a century, and became synonymous with the ‘70s disco explosion. Dance Studio Vol. 1, the latest new addition to the nightlife scene in Chicago’s River North neighbourhood, takes this lighting staple to a new level by filling the ceiling above its dancefloor completely with ADJ mirror balls of various sizes.
The new nightclub and event space is a renovation of the ‘dearly departed’ Studio Paris, which closed in January 2019 after an eight-year run. With a totally redesigned interior, Dance Studio Vol. 1 is a 350-person venue that hosts live music, DJs and ‘surprise entertainment’. It features a lighting system that was designed and installed by Craft Lighting, a Chicago-based AV design and integration company.
Craft Lighting supplied and installed a total of 470 A
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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

USA - High End Systems has announced new live events via its Study Hall programme, featuring webinars, Q&As, and round tables led by both employee experts and friends around the industry. “The content will be geared toward all our audiences around the globe, including dedicated events for just our dealers and reps - so be sure to log in to MyETC to see all the upcoming listings!” suggests HES.
This week’s schedule includes: Thursday, 2 April, 10:00 am CDT - Intro to Controls Networking - “It's all about making meaningful connections... between the components of your lighting system! ETC NYC's Nick Gonsman presents a special intro to the theory and practice of controls networking.”
Thursday, 2 April, 12:00 pm CDT - Let’s Go Hog Wild - “Join Maegan Wilson and Noah Allen, product support specialists for High End Systems, as they will cover

UK - Touring and live events may be on hold for now, but learning and career development continue to move forward at the ChamSys Training Academy. The lighting console maker has been actively expanding its online education resources with new courses, tutorials and appointment opportunities being added on a continuous basis. In addition to providing programmers with the chance to sharpen their skills (and develop new ones), the academy is serving as a platform for them to remain connected to the industry in the wake of the closings and cancelations that have taken place.
Open to anyone, the academy offers daily online webinar training sessions. Conducted by active lighting designers and programmers, like Philip Watson, Brett Lorins and Charles Courser, these sessions cover a range of basic, intermediate and advanced topics.
The ChamSys Training Academy also features a

Canada - Adamson Systems Engineering has launched a series of free educational webinars for current and potential partners and end-users around the world. The Adamson Education Webinar Series addresses some on-going challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic while keeping consistent with the company’s amplified focus on partner education for 2020.
“Everyone has been impacted by Covid-19 and its aftermath, though it’s been especially trying for the live sound community,” begins Jeremiah Karni, head of education at Adamson. “That’s why we’ve been working hard on ways to support and engage with our global network despite the fact that we can’t get together. In addition to offering informative, insightful, and interesting content for attendees, the webinar series also provides them another means to interact directly with our team, as well as their peers in the Adamson N

Europe - Lightpower has announced a number of organisational changes and senior personnel moves. “After 42 years of successful activity on the market, it is time for our company to take another step,” says a statement.
“Over the years, our company has developed and established numerous national and international business activities. In order to give these businesses a common roof, we have founded the Lightpower Holding company. The task of this holding company is to act as a control centre for all underlying companies and to develop future strategies in close cooperation with their managing directors.”
The establishment of the holding company is also accompanied by a change in the management of Lightpower GmbH. As part of this process, Herbert Marx and Michael Rickers will succeed Ralph-Jörg Wezorke, managing director of Lightpower and Franz-Josef Wewer, autho

UK - The 2020 edition of Edinburgh Festival Fringe - the world's largest arts festival - has been cancelled due to public safety concerns arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Also cancelled are the Edinburgh Art Festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Edinburgh International Festival and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
"Just a few months ago, the idea of Edinburgh without the Fringe and our sister festivals would have been totally unthinkable; now, like so many other aspects of our day-to-day lives, we must pause and take stock in the face of something far bigger," said Shona McCarthy, the chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society.
"Our hearts go out to the doctors, nurses, health and social care professionals on the front line, to everyone working to keep the country going, and to those who have

UK - Avolites will launch its full range of Q Series media servers, along with the Ai v12.1 release.
Designed as the ideal hardware to complement the Ai software, the Q Series line-up includes the Q3, Q3pro, Q4 and Qgen.
“Seeing the projects and shows Ai has been used on made us realise we needed to provide servers powerful enough to meet the creative vision of our users,” explains Ciaran Abrams, Avolites, Ai lead developer.
The Q3 Pro is a portable server for the more demanding shows, with two 4K outputs and one HD along with EDID managed HDMI outputs.
The Q4 offers the power to deliver even more detail thanks to four 4K outputs and flexible input modules, so users can spec a server to meet the most demanding needs. With the rise in use of interactive realtime generative content providers like Notch, the Qgen is designed to deliver stunning gr

Europe - Area Four Industries has announced that Eric Laanstra is the latest expert to join the Rigging Commandos, a group of specialists who present the latest developments happening in the industry.
Laanstra has been product manager at Prolyte for the past 10 years. He states: “I hope I can continue as Prolyte product manager for many years and have lots of fun with my new colleagues at Area Four Industries.”
Rigging Commandos is a group of respected experts who take an in-depth view of topics exciting interest within the industry. They identify closely with riggers and technicians and are constantly looking at ways to increase safety and efficiency at work by offering an extensive range of educative and informative videos that can be watched via A4I.tv on PCs, laptops, and mobile phones anywhere, anytime.

Europe - Genelec has unveiled the 1235A Smart Active Monitor, which fuses the sound and heritage of the 1035 main monitor with 96kHz processing and the ability to adapt to any space through its tight integration with Genelec’s GLM calibration software.
The 1235A is designed as a main monitor for large music, film and post-production studios that demand high SPL and neutral, stable imaging that can be optimised for the room’s unique acoustic environment.
Launched in 1989, the original 1035 became an industry standard throughout the world, fulfilling the need for a wall-mountable full-range monitor that could deliver true reference performance at high SPLs and over long listening distances. Legendary studio designer Sam Toyoshima was an early evangelist for the 1035, and as a result it was quickly adopted by many of the world’s finest studios, including Metropolis

UK - Calibre UK has announced that its HQPro1000 switcher/scaler now benefits from a number of enhancements.
Many of the new features found in HQPro1000 make it now even more suitable for remote interaction applications, a market that Calibre sees as growing rapidly as businesses and organisations look to minimise travel and face-to-face contact.
“Distance learning, cloud meetings and medical display are typical of the remote applications that have become increasingly popular as organisations look to reduce cost, increase productivity and minimise their carbon footprint,” said Willy Tsai, managing director, Calibre UK.
“Now, they have another reason to evaluate the solutions available from Calibre to facilitate video streaming and remote interaction - and the new functionalities we’re introducing for the HQPro1000 further enhance its ability to deliver th

UK - Stage Electrics has won the contract to complete the technical fit out of production lighting, sound, video, comms and stage engineering systems at the new purpose built, fully accessible, Brixtonhouse Theatre (formerly Ovalhouse Theatre) which forms part of the Somerleyton Road Project in the heart of Brixton.
The new building will have two performance venues and seven multi-use accessible studios and a whole new inventory of equipment and is set to at the end of 2020.
Stage Electrics will again be working with main contractor Galliford Try with who they previously completed the Southampton New Art Complex.

UK - Technical services provider White Light (WL) has taken delivery of a number of Powersoft’s T Series amplifier platforms from the company’s UK distributor, CUK Audio.
The purchase, which took place between July and October of last year, included 31 T604s and three T602s, and was made after the company had a chance to get some hands-on time with the products at WL’s warehouse.
WL’s senior audio technical project manager, Harry Saxton McCann, says: “CUK’s product demos were brilliant, and the training was ideal to bring our freelance and full-time staff up to date with Powersoft’s latest offerings. A lot of the engineers have commented on how clean the PA sounds when being driven by Powersoft amplifier platforms, and the ability to keep everything digital over Dante and AES has been very beneficial.”
Available in both 4-channel and 2-channel ve

The Netherlands - Jack-Rotterdam is a restaurant where 30 years of dance music and fine food coalesce.
When former techno DJ-turned restaurant and hotel concept developer Jack planned to open to his own house concept eatery, Amate Audio’s Benelux distributor, Imagination AV (also based in Rotterdam) was charged with specifying and installing a sound system throughout the long beautifully arched venue, that would meet the demands of both dining and dancing with equal measures of quality.
Power and performance on the dance floor come courtesy of eight Nítid N6P 2-way systems and a pair of N12WP subs. The most compact Nítid series model, the N6P’s frequency response and high SPL output is astounding for cabinet of its size, due to a combination of advanced design and components that includes a 6” carbon fibredriver that enables the N6P to deliver a response akin

Poland - One of the most spectacular and well-equipped theatres in Europe, with a seating capacity of over 2,000, The Grand Theatre - National Opera (Polish: Teatr Wielki - Opera Narodowa (TW-ON)) is a ‘must-visit’ cultural hub in Warsaw, housing a theatre complex, museum, opera company, and the Polish National Ballet all under one roof.
Most recently, its Młynarski Hall, also known as the Chamber Music Hall, has been updated with an L-Acoustics Kiva II system, offering “unparalleled sound” versatility to the venue’s extensive programme of concerts, ballets, operas, and special events.
When it was time to upgrade this notable venue's PA system, the team invited the top AV suppliers to participate in the tendering process.
The team consisted of the theatre's Zdzisław Staszewski, Łukasz Baska and Michał Polański. They were responsible for conducting

USA - Community Christian Church in Tamarac, FL, has been livestreaming Sunday services for over two years, but until recently, they always were conducted before a room filled with worshippers. When concerns about Covid-19 prompted the church to hold services inside an empty building, its tech team, which includes media pastor Bill Kelly, director of communications Vinny Cesar and visual arts director Kevis Mulchan, began revising its streaming strategy.
“We felt that not having people in the church would necessitate some changes,” said Mulchan. “Our initial thought was that it would not be good to show a room full of empty seats on our online broadcasts. However, by the second week of doing this, we reversed course, coming to realise that it was actually a good thing to show the vacant space, since this emphasized that the church is not the building itself, but the i

Spain - DAS Audio has said its operations will be suspended until 14 April due to law changes in Spain arising from the Covid-19 outbreak.
The company says in a statement:
“At DAS Audio, we would like to thank you for all the signs of affection and support you have shown us, which we would sincerely like to send back to you. Without you, our family, this dream that began in 1971 would make no sense - thank you very much. During this unsettling period, our family must stick together, and we want to be there for you, then, now and always.
“Two weeks ago, at DAS Audio headquarters, we started to take all of the necessary steps against Covid-19 following government recommendations. However, due to the latest measures adopted by the Spanish, we inform you that from 30 March we will continue to work remotely from our homes to support you when you need us.

Europe - In order to keep up with the demand for more e-training courses, Powersoft, the Italian manufacturer of professional power amplifiers, has ramped up its capacity to deliver online training courses worldwide, with over 30 new sessions covering various subjects directly of interest to Powersoft customers and users.
Each course will last for one hour and will be conducted in English, Spanish, and Italian by experienced trainers and application engineers from Powersoft.
This week, Powersoft will offer insight on its new Mezzo amplifier range. During the sessions, attendees will learn about auto setup, power sharing, and remote control, as well as a number of other ground breaking features offered by the new half rack amplifier platform.
Next week’s sessions (beginning 6 April) will focus on ArmoníaPlus 1.4 and explain how to set up and programme a basic

USA - Harman Professional Solutions is offering a range of free on-demand and instructor-led webinars hosted by leading knowledge experts from around the world.
The company has launched a new Learning Sessions eLearning programme, offered for free in conjunction with Harman Pro University, and beefing up its existing Live Workshop Series.
The Industry Expert workshops feature tips and tricks from front of house engineers, lighting designers, technicians and other industry experts, while the Harman Expert workshops feature in-depth product and solution webinars by Harman product specialists.
“We are thrilled to offer these free resources to help professionals in our industry connect and further their skill sets from the comfort of their own homes,” said Steve Mathis, senior manager, Harman Professional University. “The Live Workshop Ser

Major Losses - Workers in the UK theatre sound industry have collectively lost nearly £2m in income as a result of the coronavirus, according to a survey by the Association of Sound Designers. The results counted a total loss of £1,943,452 in income across the 249 respondents, largely due to cancelled or postponed events and loss of royalties. This averages at £7,805 per person.
Other key findings from the survey: 91% of respondents immediately lost income as a result of the social-distancing measures, worth around £1m in total; 76% had further work postponed within the next three months, worth around £750,000; 41% of those surveyed said the health of themselves and their family was their primary concern.
Dominic Bilkey, chair of the Association of Sound Designers, said: “The impact of the sudden and complete closure of theatres, arenas and other areas of entert

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