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USA - With World Theatre Day 2020 fast approaching on 27 March, Point Source Audio is marking the occasion by offering one non-profit youth arts organisation the chance to win $5,000 worth of microphones from the Embrace series. Featuring ‘a concealable design that stays firmly in place even during the most energetic of productions’, the Embrace microphones are suited to young performers.
Having previously donated Point Source Audio products as part of its Decade of Innovation competition back in 2018, the manufacturer is once again championing arts education by asking its social media followers on Facebook to nominate non-profit organisations who they think are deserving of the prize. From youth theatre groups to schools, the competition is open to any non-profit communit

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UK – The Prolights LED lighting range is helping Huddersfield Town Hall to meet its improved energy efficiency and production value goals for events.
The multi-purpose venue’s concert hall is at the heart of the Huddersfield community’s cultural activities, hosting concerts, comedy shows, awards ceremonies, conferences and other events.
Andrew Wrixon, technical manager for Huddersfield Town Hall and other venues managed by the Kirklees Council, chose Prolights fixtures when the concert hall’s traditional rig was due to be upgraded to an energy-efficient LED system.
He commented: “We invested in Prolights fixtures as we have been very pleased with them at our other venues. Their price is very good and they achieve excellent results for us.”
The venue invested in over forty fixtures, including EclipseFC full colour LED profiles, Stark400 LED wash/

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USA - Paul Siebert makes no bones about it: every night, as soon as punk rockers Menzingers strike the first snarling note in one of their Hello Exile tour sets, he kicks his lightshow into fourth gear. “I really try to introduce a lot of energy into the room as early as possible,” he explained. “This is a punk show at heart, so all the transitions between songs are really fast, and most of the band’s songs come out of the gate swinging. The earlier I can get the crowd moving, the better the show will be for everyone.”
Helping Siebert launch his show with supercharged ferocity is a collection of Chauvet Professional Rogue fixtures supplied by Squeek Lights. With four Rogue R1X Spot fixtures on side truss and four Rogue R1 Wash units hung on pipe and positioned by the drum riser, he has plenty of firepower to cover the stage with intense colours and patterns, while
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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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Australia - The new Sydney Coliseum Theatre is the first of its kind in the rapidly developing region of Greater Western Sydney and features L-ISA Hyperreal Sound technology.
“Rooty Hill draws on a very large catchment area that stretches from the Blue Mountains to Canberra, Hornsby and the city. Visitors are coming to a world class theatre without having to pay toll fees or parking charges. With a new international airport being planned close by, the road and rail infrastructure are excellent,” says The Coliseum technical operations manager Bicci Henderson.
Henderson had served 12 years at the Lyric Theatre and had no intention of moving, until he saw Sydney Coliseum. A visit to the venue became the turning point for Henderson; as he was so impressed with what the team was working to achieve that he wanted to be part of it.
Soon after joining the theatre, H

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Europe - The list of exhibitors to withdraw from the postponed Prolight+Sound tradeshow has continued to grow today, with Artistic Licence, Ayrton, Chauvet Professional, Robe Lighting, Robert Juliat, CLF Lighting, and Roe Visual among those who have cancelled their plans to attend the fair.
“The latest Covid-19 developments in Europe and the potential threat for those travelling to Frankfurt from around the world have led us to take a sensible and measured decision after considering the current facts and the dramatic spread of the virus,” commented Robe CEO, Josef Valchar. “I am sure that the industry will pull together to get through these challenging times. Prolight+Sound is the busiest and most important European trade show for us in terms of the rental and staging sectors, and an important showcase for new and emerging technology. We look forward t

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World - Optocore will host a free New Fiber Solutions webinar on 11 March (Wednesday) at 15:00 CET.
Company representatives will discuss the latest solutions and innovations from Optocore, along with partner company, BroaMan. They will explain how to use Optocore and BroaMan devices and network solutions in installations, from basic one-device solutions to advanced fiber networks.
To take part in this webinar, follow this link.

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UK - Following the news of the postponement of Germany’s Prolight+Sound exhibition and cancellation of Italy’s Music Inside Rimini due to health concerns surrounding the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19), PLASA has revealed that it “is monitoring the situation carefully and working to provide the best support it can to its members at this difficult and uncertain time”.
With cases of the virus on the rise in the UK, there is understandable widespread concern about the spread of COVID-19. Currently, the UK government is still at the ‘Contain’ phase, but could move to the next phase, ‘Delay’, in the near future in a bid to help slow the spread of the virus. It remains unclear how this will impact large-scale events throughout the rest of the year. Already, the governments of Switzerland and France have banned public events of 1,000 people or more, including the

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Festival Update - Live music and media festival South by Southwest (SXSW) has been cancelled due to coronavirus fears. Organisers of the annual event in Austin, Texas, said they had no choice but to call it off for the first time in its 34-year history. The move was ordered by Austin mayor Steve Adler, who declared "a local disaster".
In a statement on Friday, SXSW said it was "devastated" by the news, but respected the decision. Event organisers said: "'The show must go on' is in our DNA, and this is the first time in 34 years that the March event will not take place. We are now working through the ramifications of this unprecedented situation." Some of the event's biggest exhibitors - including Apple, Amazon, Twitter and Facebook - had already pulled out.
Last year SXSW drew nearly 74,000 people with over 19,000 coming from outside the US. In 2018, visitors spent $3

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USA - Magmatic atmospheric effects is shipping the first snow machine in its Polar series of high-output snow effects - Polar Crisp. Crisp is a professional, high-volume snow machine with intuitive innovation that makes it easy to create scene-setting wintry settings.
Compact and lightweight, Crisp is capable of producing high volumes of naturalistic snow with the capacity to adjust snowflake size for greater versatility, says the company. Small flake or large, short throw or long, this 1250W high-volume snow machine can project snow up to 40ft with the flexibility to adjust to the occasion.
An all-in-one APF (Air Pump Fan) system together with an auto-clean feature lowers the risk of clogging and reduces the need for maintenance. An easy-to-open housing and serviceable design add to its user-friendliness.
Built to withstand travel and repeated use, Crisp feat

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UK - Triple E has a long-established reputation for manufacturing efficient, mechanical products and gadgets to aid the movement of curtains and the assembly and construction of stage scenery. As the demands of the industry change, it is often the case that pre-existing pieces of equipment need a review and a refresh to ensure their design adapts to the demands of the applications they are used for.
The team at Triple E has developed its Rearfold accessory for their industry standard UniTrack and UniBeam carriers.
“The UniTrack system was first launched in 1988, and the Rearfold accessory has been an integral part of the system since that time. Therefore, a long overdue review of the Rearfold accessory design was implemented,” says David Edelstein, founder and managing director of Triple E. “The Rearfold carriers enable a curtain as it travels to stack offstage

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UK - The 40th edition of the Brit Awards, held on 18 February at London’s O2 Arena, featured the event’s most challenging audio production to date; designed and executed by long-term audio partner, Britannia Row Productions.
Brit Row delivered a multi-stage sound system with a secondary PA in tow, utilising Out Board TiMax 3D spatial audio control. This enabled performances - which included a highly anticipated appearance from Stormzy - to take place under - not in front of - the PA and allowed host Jack Whitehall’s vocal to be localised into the nearest audio system as he worked the busy room.
Delivered to both people in the venue a live television audience, “there is never a compromise on the audio,” says Britannia Row sound designer Josh Lloyd. “The high standard expected is driven by the level of performances; every artist knows this is a huge pla

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USA - For the 5th Avenue Theatre, a venue that seats almost 2,200 patrons, having a fully stocked arsenal of microphones to rely on for its theatrical productions is of utmost importance. The Seattle-based theatre has found that dependability with DPA Microphones, which were recently deployed for the venue’s production of Marie, Dancing Still.
The 5th Avenue Theatre’s stock of DPA microphones includes 4061 Omnidirectional Miniature Mics, 4011 Cardioid Microphones, 4099 Instrument Microphones, and the newest addition, the brand’s 6061 Omnidirectional Subminiature Microphones. “We are happy to add DPA mics to our inventory whenever we can,” says Karen Katz, head sound engineer for The 5th Avenue Theatre.
For Marie, Dancing Still, a theatrical production based on dance and ballet, it was crucial for the sound design team at The 5th Avenue Theatre

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USA - Claypaky Xtylos laser source moving lights made their Pepsi Halftime Show debut at Super Bowl LIV where they added even more impact to the dynamic performances of Shakira and Jennifer Lopez in Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium. Xtylos created a network of intense beams in varied colours as well as wave effects that served as a background for the stage.
Lighting designer Bob Barnhart of 22 Degrees, who has 21 Super Bowl halftime shows to his credit, selected 50 Xtylos for the event after seeing the fixtures at LDI 2019. “I was impressed with the beam quality, which was so pure and consistent in intensity from the outside edge to the centre,” he says. “Xtylos was incredibly crisp and clear; its really hard edge intrigued me and stayed on my mind as the halftime show took shape.”
“It takes a special breed of person to use a new product on a project like t

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The Netherlands - A prominent player in the world of LED displays and audio-visual productions as well as part of the NEP Worldwide Network, Faber Audiovisuals, hosted a virtual production demo at Amsterdam Studios at the end of February.
As part of the event, Brompton Technology was invited to present its HDR (High Dynamic Range) solution on LED screens set up as greenscreen replacements for film and TV. Enabled by Brompton’s Dynamic Calibration technology, HDR delivers images that appear ‘perceptibly sharper, more vivid, detailed and lifelike’.
Though the use of LED screens in film has been slowly increasing over the past decade, the advances in resolution, brightness and colour range (HDR) coupled with the growing affordability of these technologies in the last couple of years have made LED screens an increasingly attractive option for both high profile produc

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Singapore - Ctrl Fre@k’s Jeffrey Yue has drawn upon his extensive know-how plus creative AV technology including TiMax SoundHub spatial audio servers - to realise a five-act multimedia extravaganza within century-old Fort Canning, to commemorate Singapore’s 200-year milestone.
From Singapore to Singaporean: The bicentennial Experience is a one-hour immersive, multi-sensory journey that charts Singapore’s 500-year history prior to the British arrival in 1819 and onwards to the present day. As technical consultant and systems designer for audio, video, lighting and multimedia control aspects of the exhibit, Ctrl Fre@k’s remit was to integrate the work of numerous design agencies and creative consultants into a unified whole using the most sophisticated technologies, with TiMax SoundHub in the frame to facilitate a cohesive audio journey.
The temporary exhi

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Germany - The Kulturzelt is an annual music festival in Kassel that has run since 1987. It began life in a former circus tent, before progressing to its current location in a temporary, self-supporting concert hall constructed in 2010.
The specially designed, circular plexiglass structure covers an area of 860sqm and accommodates 900 visitors. Kulturzelt is now a strongly established event in the German festival calendar.
Events production specialist Ambion of Kaufungen has supported Kulturzelt with a full production since 2004 and was once again asked to supply the audio for the 2019 edition. The company took the opportunity to install a brand-new Coda Audio N-Ray system. N-Ray is Coda’s latest ultra-compact line array.
Ambion were involved in pre-launch trials of N-Ray, and having experienced its power and quality, had no hesitation in deploying the beta syst

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Germany - When Circus Flic Flac rolled into town at Westfalenhalle, Dortmund for its ninth annual Christmas show, it brought with it a 1,200-capacity circus tent, an array of human-only artistes and an Ayrton lighting arrangement by lighting designer, Christopher Rostalski, from CR-Lichtdesign in Soest.
Rostalski chose to work with the latest Ayrton products to create his design in this setting, employing 20 Khamsin-S profile spots, 20 Bora-S washlights and 10 MiniBurst graphic strobe fixtures, all of which were supplied by Stefan Kniess at B + B Veranstaltungstechnik in Dortmund.
Circus Flic Flac was needing powerful lighting for the inside of this dark and dramatic performance setting and the Ayrton fixtures had features that suited this environment. “We really liked the fact that Khamsin and Bora both have the Ayrton 100% framing system which are perfect for an a

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Japan - Barbee Boys are a five-piece Japanese rock band who were particularly popular in 1980’s. The first Japanese group to perform at the Nippon Budokan, they disbanded in 1992, much to the disappointment of their young generation of fans.
This turned to excitement when they suddenly announced a ‘comeback’ concert at the Yoyogi National Stadium 1st Gymnasium on 13 January - exactly a decade after that Budokan show - sending these same fans into raptures.
MSI Japan was asked to provide the sound production and Bun Hote, who has been supporting artistes from the Office Augasta stable (which includes Kyoko, a member of the Barbee Boys), was charged with mixing the sound. Known for his ability as a system tech as well as a FOH engineer, he chose Martin Audio’s MLA as his favoured PA.
His solution was to adopt a different approach to his system design, to

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UK - Bristol-based production technology house Enlightened has made a significant investment in its audio rental inventory, adding Nexo’s P+ Series compact point source loudspeakers, together with L15 sub bass cabinets, and new NXAMP4x2Mk2 amplifiers.
Enlightened is a one-stop shop for lighting, audio, video and staging solutions, for hire, sale, production, repair or permanent installation. Audio specialist Matt Shelbourn explains: “Enlightened has had Nexo’s popular PS series in rental stock for over 10 years. Over that time, they have proven to be reliable boxes that are popular with our clients. For these reasons, we chose to invest again in the Nexo brand.
“Nexo has a reputation for making speakers that pack high SPL into small-format boxes and that is fundamentally one of the big attractions in the new P12. The dual-concentric design means the boxes are s

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UK - Over the last 25 years The Brook in Southampton has established itself as one of the favourite independent music venues in the south of England. The venue has developed this reputation by putting audience and artist experience as its top priorities, and this has been seen again with a completely new sound system from TW AUDiO.
Opened by founder Bryn Lewis in 1994 as a 300-capacity music venue, The Brook has a long history of supporting original music and has welcomed many artists at every stage of their career to its intimate stage. The venue had sported the same second-hand sound system since its opening, even after the capacity doubled to 600 in 2004. However, after 25 years of service this system was starting to feel the strain.
“It had become a little bit like running a car with a classic engine where you have to drive it carefully and look after it,” says

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USA - To update his original 2008 lighting design for a modern touring production of Dreamgirls, lighting designer Ken Billington chose the LED-based VLZ fixtures from Vari-Lite. After seeing a demo of the VLZ fixtures, he was satisfied with them as the luminaire that would reproduce the look and feel of his original Vari-Lite rig.
Billington specified 32 VLZ Wash, 22 VLZ Spot and 12 VLZ Profile fixtures to form the show’s entire overhead lighting rig. “The fixtures are bright,” he says, “in fact a bit too bright! We run them at 50-70% most of the time. When you fade the LED, there is no beam degradation, which you would see if there was a shutter dimming a discharge fixture.”
A key aim for this production was recreating the original colour palette, which the VLZs matched well. “The colours are really clear, clean colours that don’t muddy the beam
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