UAE - PSAV has announced the acquisition of eclipse, the AV and live event production and venue company operating in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Eclipse, founded in 2003 by Mark Brown, is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of PSAV and will continue to operate under the eclipse brand name. eclipse CEO Simon Ransom and his senior team will remain in place and continue to execute on their growth plans, now in partnership with PSAV. Ransom will assume leadership of PSAV UAE operations, and work with Nik Rudge, PSAV’s managing director, international, and his team.
“Eclipse is an exciting addition to the PSAV group of companies due to its extensive in-house venues and event production expertise, and strong alignment to ou

UK - The market value of the UK entertainment technology industry has grown by an estimated 5% in the past 12 months, according to PLASA research.
This puts the industry’s value at £1.36bn in 2018/19, up from £1.30bn in 2017/18. The sectors with the largest growth include architecture, broadcast and corporate events, which are valued at £250m, £220m and £160m respectively.
Only a third of the businesses surveyed expect the industry to grow in 2019/20 however, the main concern being how and when the UK will exit the European Union.
The full report, which follows on from PLASA’s comprehensive industry research released in 2018, details sector by sector performance, investment in marketing and R&D, and the future outlook for the industry.

Ukraine - Realtime visualisation specialist L8 has launched L8 CE, an affordable, entry-level version of its flagship pre-viz software.
L8 CE (Community Edition) uses the same code and libraries as the full version, but there are restrictions on the number of DMX inputs and the number of fixtures. Support is also limited to one year from activation.
"L8 CE may be a good solution for simultaneously using the software on a pre-programming workstation and for everyone else involved in the process of creating the show," says the company. "For those who want to know the full power of L8 visualisation technology, this is the first step to study it with."
L8 CE supports up to 64 fixtures and two DMX universes. Other features include animated 3D textures (cyclic animation of any texture), volume transparency (ie. (effects such as hard smoke, rain, snow, fire) and mirror
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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

Australia - Further evidence of the growing multi-dimensionality of art can be found at the 24th edition of the Communicating the Arts conference which, for the first time, sees participants from the performing arts join those from the visual arts. The theme of this edition is Cultural Leadership.
“An example of great leadership is when in the face of challenges, people can stick to the values of inclusion, rigour, honesty, respect and courage.” This is an example of what the participants will learn from attending as explained by Wesley Enoch, artistic director at Sydney Festival who will also hold the opening keynote.
Taking place at multiple cultural venues in Sydney from 12-14 November, some 250 Australian and international cultural leaders, senior arts professionals and innovators will gather for three days of immersive learning, masterclasses and exhibi

Italy - Shure Incorporated has strengthened its marketing and sales operations in Europe with the appointment of Emanuele Luongo, a new integrated systems market development manager for Italy.
Luongo will assume the position on 1 December. He will be based in Milan and will concentrate on the Italian integrated systems market, working closely with Shure distributor Prase Media Technologies.
Luongo’s background is in sound engineering, acoustics and wireless audio. He has held sales and product management positions at Shure’s Italian distribution partners as well as live sound engineering positions for notable artists.
“We are pleased to appoint Emanuele to this key position, supporting our market development activities in Italy,” comments Rob Smith, senior director, integrated systems sales Western Europe at Shure. “As Shure continues to expand globally

Denmark - Pascal has announced two executive appointments to its management team, positioning the company for a new phase of strategic expansion.
Gorm Eichenberger has been appointed as CFO, following the retirement of Henrik Gunst Smith, the company’s director of finance since 2013. Also joining the company is Gustaf Høskuldsson, taking up the newly created position of COO. Both come to Pascal with extensive experience with audiology market leader Widex, where Eichenberger held the position of head of operation finance and Høskuldsson vice-president, global supply chain.
The appointments follow a year of sustained investment by the company, during which personnel, and R&D and operations facilities at its Copenhagen HQ have expanded by more than 30%.
“In continuing to manage the growth process and maintain an exceptional rate of expansion, we are seekin

USA - ChamSys (stand 937) will debut its compact MagicQ MQ70 console in the US at the upcoming LDI tradeshow in Las Vegas. Launched at the PLASA Show 2019, the desk weighs in at a mere 7kg (15.4lb) and can fit into a carry-on sized luggage that meets the restrictions of even budget airlines.
The MagicQ MQ70 supports 24 universes of ArtNet/sACN natively, with an option to expand this to 48 universes directly from the console (with a paid upgrade). The console features a 10.1” multi touch display, along with illuminated fader and encoder tracks.
The MagicQ MQ70 also has built-in WiFi, making it easy to connect to the ChamSys MagicQ Remote focus application simply by scanning the QR code on screen without the need for external networking hardware. MIDI input and output as well as LTC timecode input are also inbuilt, allowing easy integration with show control and time

USA - LED processor manufacturer Brompton Technology is officially launching its High Dynamic Range (HDR) solution at LDI 2019. The company will also unveil a new technology that it believes will “make a real difference to the industry” in a dedicated showcase area in room N254 of the Las Vegas Convention Centre.
“We are delighted to be able to bring some very exciting new technologies to LDI and let our customers judge for themselves what a difference Brompton processing can make. In our new technology showcase, we will demonstrate our latest innovation, alongside Brompton HDR that we have previously previewed at ISE and Infocomm, in addition to a wealth of other new features that these technologies enable,” says Brompton’s managing director Richard Mead.
HDR video offers a new approach to delivering better image quality, without requiring finer and finer

Belgium - Although the Fantasia festival succeeds in attracting some of the hottest EDM and trance DJs year after year, it’s built a loyal fan base with much more than music alone. Drawing on the power of its wildly imaginative and elaborate stage scenery, Fantasia succeeds in cocooning festival-goers in a multi-sensory experience that intensifies the power of its electronic music.
Forming the central visual backdrop to this year’s stage was a representation of an exotic burlesque palace measuring 15m tall by 45m wide. Providing dramatic visuals to accentuate the mystique of the stage was a lighting design by Creative Rental Solutions (CRS) that included a collection of Chauvet Professional Rogue R2 Wash, RH1 Hybrid, COLORdash Par H12IP, STRIKE P38, and COLORado Panel Q40 fixtures.
“Given the ambition of Fantasia’s organisers to create ever more impressive st

USA - Master Sound Productions of Miami has taken delivery of a full complement of Elation Professional’s IP65-rated weatherproof lighting fixtures. In operation since 1996 in one of the country’s most competitive markets for entertainment technology providers, Master Sound Productions is known as one of the most versatile event rental and full production companies in South Florida.
“South Florida is very competitive; you’ve got to diversify in this market to stay ahead,” comments Lazaro Soto, owner of Master Sound Productions. “Our goal is not to be the biggest event production source in South Florida but to be the very best one. That’s why I’ve chosen to offer my clients a 100% outdoor-rated all Elation lighting rig.”
Over the past couple of years, Elation Professional’s Proteus line of IP65-rated lighting fixtures has established itself as the

Columbia - Pop-rock singer songwriter Andres Cepeda is one of Colombia’s most popular artists, loved for his multi-genre repertoire, humour and dynamic style. He recently played a month of sold-out shows at the 1,300-capacity Teatro Major Julio Mario Santo Domingo in the north of Bogota.
His long-term lighting designer Nestor Gaitan - universally known as Cariňosito (‘care bear’) - lit the show, and used the theatre’s 12 Robe MiniPointe moving lights which are part of the house lighting rig.
These were rigged on four vertical stands on tank trap bases, positioned two (stands) either side of a prominent central LED screen. The miniPointes were used extensively throughout the show.
Andres’ large band for this series of shows was enriched with the sounds of a full brass section. The musicians and backing vocalists were split between a raised deck above th

Ukraine - Loudspeaker manufacturer MAG Audio introduced its new line array technology, MAG Must. The company unveiled the product during an event at Kiev’s 70,000-seat NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium on 6 September.
Standing for Multiple Uniform Sound Technology, MAG Must allows installers to use a single line array format, therefore eliminating the need for bothersome stock and complex logistics, says the company. The technology is based on the scalable 8” MAG Wasp line array, which allows creation of uniform sound coverage across a venue of any size.
“We intended to create the technology that can change approach to using small format line arrays,” explains Igor Sydorenko, systems engineer at MAG Audio. “Today, manufacturers offer lines of products depending on the target event size - starting from compact arrays and up to the large-format ones. But we consider this

India - Martin Audio’s APAC representative Generation AV has appointed Sanak Pandit as applications engineer.
Based in Bangalore, Pandit has been working in audio since the age of 14, having completed his studies in the Bangalore School of Audio under the training of Vishnu Pandit, one of the most respected technical experts in the touring & rental market in India. In addition to working with his family companies of V&P Sound and SD Audio, the new recruit also served as a freelance sound engineer for a number of Indian artists.
Generation AV founder David McKinney, comments: “I am very excited to have Sanak in the team; he has the technical abilities to support all the brands in Generation AV and I believe will be a great asset to our business in Asia. With his strong background in the touring market he is able to hit the ground running.”
Martin A

Europe - The multi-functional laser mainboard ShowNET is now available to laser system manufacturers. The ShowNET is a digital to analogue convertor (DAC) for laser software such as Showcontroller and comes with a full licence for Showeditor Laser Software for free. It is also an ArtNET node and can be triggered by DMX so professional lighting designers appreciate the additional professional DMX mode that provides advanced control options with lighting consoles, like safety zones over DMX, color balancing of the laser or RGB color wheel support.
Besides the trigger control options, ShowNET can be operated in various stand-alone operation modes as well as sound to light (microphone board available on request). The contents of the memory on the ShowNET board can be customised with standard ILDA files, which can be created with the included Showeditor software or any other soft

USA - In Dayton, Ohio, in the heart of the downtown Arts District, the Mead Theatre is the cornerstone of the Benjamin & Marian Schuster Performing Arts Centre. Opened in 2003, the 2,300-seat venue hosts a wide range of performances, including the Dayton Philharmonic, Dayton Opera, Dayton Ballet, touring Broadway blockbusters, rock concerts, comedians and more.
Helping to inspire the imagination and refresh the spirit of the three-balcony facility, Scenic Solutions of Ohio specified and installed FloppyFlex LED neon into the architectural details of the venue.
In addition to the installation in the concentric rings of the ceiling that culminate in a representation of the night sky when the Wright Brothers took their first flight, “We used 204m of FloppyFlex White 2100K deployed in the existing coves that accent all three balconies,” says Andrew Persson of Sceni

USA - Lighting designer Justin Townsend specified 38 High End Systems SolaWash 2000 High CRI automated LED luminaires for Moulin Rouge! The Musical. Since its summer opening at New York City’s Al Hirschfield Theatre, the show has received critical acclaim not only for the glam costumes and glitzy scenery, but also for its rich lighting.
A review on Broadway World says it’s “sumptuously-designed in more shades of red than you previously knew existed on the colour spectrum”.
New York Stage Review notes “The real stars are the artists who don't appear onstage. Lighting designer Justin Townsend can evoke anything from a pulse-pounding nightclub to the shadowy alleys of Argentina to a hallucinogenic electric-green drunken dream.”
Townsend, a two-time Tony Award nominee, says: “The SolaWash 2000 unit has been instrumental for my work on M

Germany - International Christian Fellowship Munich (ICF) has recently upgraded its audio system with an Allen & Heath dLive solution for its weekly services and events.
ICF Munich is a non-denominational free church, which in addition to its regular Sunday services, also hosts other live events with up to 800 participants.
Due to size of the services and events, a large number of microphones and extensive I/O is needed for the speakers and live performers. As such, one of the main requirements for ICF was an audio system that could meet the demands of a professional concert.
To serve its growing needs, ICF’s new audio system comprises a dLive S5000 paired with a DM48 MixRack and two DX168 expanders for additional I/O. A Dante card is utilised for multitrack recording, connection to wireless microphone receivers and the PA.
Head of audio technology, M

USA - Carrie Underwood recently wrapped up her Cry Pretty Tour 360 with a lighting package provided by long-time vendor, Bandit Lites. Underwood has been thrilling audiences around the globe all year with her all-female tour featuring a an ‘in-the-round’ lighting design by Nick Whitehouse of Fireplay production studio.
“This tour is by far the most ambitious design yet for Ms. Underwood and it has certainly paid off in terms of visual artistry,” said Bandit Lites vice president, Mike Golden. “Carrie has a veteran staff in tour Manager Geoff Donkin, production manager Graham Holmes, show producer BarrymLather and lighting director Nate Cromwell, and with Nick Whitehouse and the visionary team at Fireplay, this year’s production is unmatched and flawless.”
Drawing inspiration from the Cry Pretty album artwork, Fireplay designed a stage using the ey

UK - Pixel Artworks has designed and delivered The Garden of Light, a multi-sensory installation for McArthurGlen Designer Outlet, Ashford.
The Garden of Light uses the latest LED pixel lighting and immersive audio technology to create a 360° virtual garden environment and is part of the expansion of McArthurGlen Designer Outlet. In tribute to Kent’s status as the ‘Garden of England’, The Garden of Light provides shoppers with a multi-dimensional walkthrough experience designed to stimulate the senses and reflect on visitors’ connection with nature.
The experience will also feature “Europe’s largest living wall installation”, made up of more than 120,000 leafy green plants, and although the experience is free, visitors are encouraged to donate money towards building a sensory garden for the William Harvey Hospital.
Light i

UK - The Institute of Physics for the UK and Ireland (IOP) has an impressive new London HQ, built from the ground-up with a modern architectural statement that has AV designed-in from the start.
The site is an old plumbing supplies shop in the developing creative industries area near Kings Cross, London. Leaving just the original brick façade, it has been transformed into something completely new. The polished concrete structure of this £13.5m project brings focus to the large screens and interactive experiences that will greet more than 200,000 IOP visitors every year. It is a space that radiates cutting-edge science, and one that required visual and audio technologies to be as much a part of its essence as the concrete itself.
Recursive AV, the AV consultant on the project, had the opportunity to liaise with and influence the architects more than two years before c

Latvia - The Latvian College of Culture (LCC) in Riga is part of the larger Latvian Academy of Culture and is described as "the best place to study creative industries" in the country.
The college has a continuous and built-in effort to keep up with the times, which is why school administrators called on SGS Sistemas, Clair Brothers distributor in the region. Normunds Eilands and Guntars Bluss of SGS were asked to recommend the best loudspeakers for LCC’s next upgrade of its audio production equipment. After evaluating the school’s needs SGS recommended the Clair Brothers kiT12-i loudspeakers, and kiT-Subs.
Along with the selected kiT12-i loudspeakers and kiT-Subs, the Clair Brothers PLM 12K44 power amplifier was also specified and installed. Other equipment chosen by the college includes a Lab.gruppen power amplifier; a Midas digital mixing console plus a Midas in

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