Details
Russia - ETC and High End Systems’ dealers will present the latest product innovations from both companies at the 2019 Prolight+Sound NAMM Russia tradeshow. From 12-14 September, visitors to the Sokolniki Exhibition Centre in Moscow will find the latest additions to ETC and High End Systems’ fixtures and controls families in Hall 4.
DOKA Centre will demonstrate Augment3d, ETC’s new fully integrated 3D programming environment in Eos v3.0 on stand C6. Users can interact with their fixtures through augmented reality as well as controlling and designing in a three-dimensional space. Augment3d will be shown on an Eos family console desk.
They will also present Relevé Spot, ETC’s moving light specifically designed for theatre which brings affordable, high quality col

Details
UK - The d&b audiotechnik A-Series is set to make its UK debut at this year’s PLASA Show (15-17 September, London Olympia), with visitors also able to see the new d&b series at the SFL and SSE booths.
The A-Series introduces a new sound reinforcement concept: the augmented array. An advanced loudspeaker concept born from the d&b applied evolution system development philosophy. Combining variable splay angles, two approaches to acoustic optimization, and advanced waveguide design, the A-Series addresses applications where coverage flexibility in both the horizontal and the vertical is paramount.
“PLASA Show is a great place to showcase some of the latest innovations, and we are delighted to be able to give our partners the opportunity to bring the d&b A-Series to the show and introduce it to the UK market,” comments Gianni Abruzzese, d&b commer

Details
USA - Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre is a popular five-week summer festival in Logan, Utah, that presents four fully staged works in repertory at the Ellen Eccles Theatre. Lighting designer Chris Wood, who just wrapped up his seventh season working on the festival as part of a top-notch cast and crew, had the opportunity to use Elation Artiste Picasso LED profile moving heads on this year’s productions - Newsies, West Side Story, Mary Poppins, and The Marriage of Figaro.
4 Wall in Las Vegas recommended the Picasso to Wood and although the fixture entered the lighting specification somewhat late, which didn’t give the designer much time to familiarize himself with it, he says he got better acquainted with the light through fixture documentation. “I appreciate that Elation puts out a lot of photometric data,” Wood says, “which
featured content

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

Details
Germany - For Rammstein’s latest stadium tour, lighting designers Patrick Woodroffe and Roland Greil specified four grandMA2 full-size consoles, one grandMA2 light, 15 x MA NPU (Network Processing Unit) and seven MA 8Port Nodes.
Roland Greil explains: “Together with our programmer Marc Brunkhardt, we made the decision to specify a proven workhorse in the form of a grandMA2 system. The reasons are its reliability, performance and all our positive previous experiences with this console.
“Our concept from the beginning was to create a range of unique scenes,” continues Greil. “Our approach was quite theatrical. Obviously, the whole design needed to work hand-in-hand with the overall production design and be different to the more regular concert designs out there. Besides the very industrial look, we also wanted to create a modern aesthetic for part of the show.

Details
USA - Although Union College in Schenectady, New York, has only 2,600 undergraduate students, the private liberal arts college’s men’s ice hockey team competes successfully with much larger schools in NCAA Division 1. The Union Dutchmen even won the 2014 national championship over such sports powers as Minnesota, Boston College, and Providence.
Four years later, the Upstate New York school brought in AV systems integrators Com Tech of neighbouring Albany to update the video production systems in Frank L. Messa Rink, the home of Union’s men’s and women’s hockey teams. As Com Tech’s owner Chuck Zarriello recounts, the project grew to include designing and installing a new audio system for the venue.
“The old system was inadequate, with outdated technology,” Zarriello reports. “It had been slowly failing over the years and had issues with intelligibility

Details
UK - London-based live AV production company, JD Pro Sound, is currently taking on the UK’s theatre circuit with the Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons touring tribute show, Bye Bye Baby, and an Allen & Heath SQ digital mixing system.
With more than 15 years’ experience, JD Pro Sound provides AV services for live music shows, private and corporate events, and touring theatre shows. Having worked with Bye Bye Baby since 2015, Jay Dimoff (owner and main touring engineer) has tackled audio needs for the production at 400 theatres around the UK, mixing exclusively with Allen & Heath consoles. Most recently, Dimoff decided to add an SQ-5 mixer to handle the current run of shows.
“We’ve been working with Allen & Heath products since 2015 and we just love every single moment using all these fantastic desks and additional equipment,” comment

Details
The Netherlands - The Bridges of Madison County is a musical based on Robert James Waller’s 1992 novel produced by OpusOne that is mid-way through an extensive Netherlands tour with lighting designed by Benno Barends who is using Robe DL7S Profile and ColorWash 700 moving lights at the heart of the touring lighting system which us being supplied by P3 Podiumtechniek.
Benno has worked for Opus One for 10 years, starting as an intern and becoming their principal lighting designer. The Bridges of Madison County initially completed two successful runs in Amsterdam Zonnehaus and DeLaMar Theatre before hitting the road with Benno staying onboard as the lighting designer.
The main challenge was adapting the lighting to ensure it was practical to tour, play one night stands and fit into a wide range of venues - although most Netherlands cities are well endowed

Details
UK - Martin Audio has reported sales growth following a series of product launches and an overseas expansion.
The Buckinghamshire-based business has recorded a 22% increase in sales in its financial year 2017/18, growing from £16.5m to £20.1m. The company is now forecasting a further 20% increase in sales during 2019.
Over the same period, Martin Audio has added a number of major global rental clients to its roster, including US-based Soundworks, Southard Audio and Twilight Audio which were part of efforts to consolidate the brand’s footprint in North America, where it is now established as a direct distributor. In addition, Jamaican brand Main Event Entertainment, and Dominican Republic-headquartered Group AR were also added joining the ranks of Martin Audio rental companies that manage tours, corporate events and major festivals including London’s British Summ

Details
Europe/USA - Mark Knopfler is on the road once again, supporting the release of his new Down the Road Wherever album with an epic show presented in L-ISA Hyperreal Sound technology by L-Acoustics. Having hit venues throughout Europe and headed to North America, Knopfler has once again raised the rock bar with a 10-piece band, and a 7.1 L-ISA configuration provided by SSE Hire, part of the SSE Audio Group.
Front of house engineer Dave Dixon and systems engineer Ulf Oeckel specified L-ISA technology, with Maxime Menelec – an experienced L-ISA operator - joining during production rehearsals to take over systems engineering duties from the beginning of the tour, setting up the initial design with creativity and audience impact in mind.
"The idea of moving to L-ISA technology is a direct result of a request made by Mark during the last tour," Dixon recalls. "He as

Details
UK - Blackout, an immersive installation designed by Mig Burgess to raise mental health awareness, will be presented at the PLASA Show from 15-17 September at Olympia London.
After an initial run at Guildford School of Acting earlier this year (see LSi June 2019), the project, which fuses cutting-edge technology, art, theatre and education, will visit the tradeshow as it gears up for a nationwide roll-out.
Blackout aims to give visitors a rare insight into the mind of someone with bipolar II disorder by utilising light, sound, video and vibration, creating a sensory journey into the mind of a bipolar II patient who transitions through a hyper manic and manic low episode.
The experience has been created for a s

Details
Europe - Area Four Industries have continued to promote various trussing products through its video channel A4i.tv, dedicating the latest one to the Milos Corner Brace HD.
This piece of kit has been designed to add full support for small- to medium-sized roofs and eliminate the need for guy wires.
In the video, available here, Area Four Industries’ technical director Norbert Tripp discusses the design, features and advantages of the Corner Brace HD. Designed for use with standard two-way and three-way 90° corners, it eliminates the need for guy wires by ensuring stabilisation, reducing ballast requirements, providing more access to the stage, and requiring less time to install.
(Jim Evans)

Details
UK - Music for Dementia 2020 and Live Music Now have launched a new Musical Care taskforce with the aim to make music an essential element of dementia care.
The taskforce, which brings together more than 60 leading representatives from across the music, dementia, health and social care sectors, will look at ways to bring music to people living with dementia who are not able to access music otherwise.
A wide body of research has demonstrated significant benefits of music for people living with dementia, including reducing anxiety, depression and agitation, providing an alternative channel of communication and connecting people with those around them through shared musical moments.
Music for Dementia 2020 is a campaign to make music available for everyone living with dementia by the end of 2020. To create this taskforce, Music for Dementia 2020 has partnered with L

Details
USA - Creative Technology has selected the ROE Visual Sapphire platform to expand its rental inventories with a NNP LED system. After a thorough selection process, the Sapphire platform was chosen as the best performing product.
CT has invested considerably in the Sapphire platform with 1,5mm LED panels. Using the latest 1in4 Mini LED technology, the visual performance is unmatched. The native 4K panels, with 16:9 measurements will be running on the new MVT processing platform by Megapixel.
“As soon as we noticed a rising market demand for NNP displays, we have been interested on adding this to our rental inventory”, states Graham Andrews, CEO of Creative Technology Group. “We always try to offer our customers the best and latest technologies available. However, applying an NNP LED system for rental purposes has proven to be challenging for many LED manufacturers

Details
South Africa - MGG is the first rental technical company in South Africa to invest in Braceworks, an add-on module for Vectorworks Spotlight, which helps ensure safety and compliance and is an easy way to assess a temporary structure under load.
Gone are the days when a truck would arrive on-site and the technician would quickly chat to the client and only then decide where the stage and gear would be positioned. “Now everything is so well planned, right to the point of where the motors need to go,” explains Kevin Rieck, head of drafting at MGG. “Everyone can see what the final product is going to look like before the truck is even loaded, but with events getting bigger, we had to ensure safety first and this is where Braceworks comes in.”
MGG recently took ownership of Braceworks, purchased from DWR Distribution, and have used it on shows such as Miss SA, Clas

Details
USA - At the turn of the year, Lady Gaga kicked off two multi-year Las Vegas residencies at Park Theatre at Park MGM, both of which are presented in L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound technology from L-Acoustics.
Lady Gaga’s first show, Enigma, which has now completed 18 sold-out performances is a nonstop, eye-popping spectacle taking its 5,200 audience members on a full-throttle, futuristic odyssey through two hours of her club classics.
Her second show, Jazz & Piano, is a glitzy return to classic Las Vegas style with the artist accompanied by a full big band complete with string section. Alternating between stripped down solo piano and vocal arrangements of her pop numbers and swinging orchestral versions of Great American Songbook staples.
Although the two productions could hardly be more different in terms of design and execution, the sound tec

Details
Poland - Projection Artworks has completed Poland: First to Fight, an ambitious outdoor live immersive experience to mark the 80th anniversary of World War II at Museum 1939, Gdansk.
The Projection Artworks team scripted, storyboarded, choreographed and produced Poland: First to Fight in collaboration with Museum 1939. The Museum’s dynamic external architecture is transformed into a skyline canvas, creating a 20-minute live sensory experience that integrates archive footage, animation, projection mapping, live action, music performance, narration and sound effects to tell the heroic story of Poland’s journey through the war. An interpretive dance is woven through the show, with dancers and actors interacting with the projection, choreographed by dance and theatre artist Rhiannon Faith.
Museum 1939’s façades are manipulated using 3D mapping illusions, with

Details
Italy - The Milan Latin Festival is a 10-week celebration of Latin American artists. They converge on the external area of the Assago Forum in Milan for 66 days of celebration from mid-June to mid-August, to deliver a varied programme of concerts to enthusiastic crowds. Artists such as the king of Reggaeton, Daddy Yankee and fellow Puerto Rican, Ozuna, lit up the stage for sold-out shows.
At outdoor events such as this, where the hazards of dispersion are more pronounced, the true qualities of an audio system are laid bare and event technology provider Suono e Luci, chose Coda Audio to ensure that every artist performing during the two-month duration of the festival was heard loud and clear.
Claudio Saoncella, head of audio at Suono e Luci, customers of Coda Audio’s Italian distributor Decima 1948, opted for a ViRAY solution configured in Bi-Amp. The system was install

Details
Belarus - Thousands of lighting fixtures and LED devices supported the Bright Year, Bright You theme of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2019 Second European Games earlier this summer. Dinamo National Stadium in Minsk, Belarus was aglow with the glittering pageantry, and a network of High End Systems Hog lighting consoles controlled it all.
The main lighting control system was comprised of two Hog 4-18 flagship consoles plus two Full Boar 4 consoles, all networked in a multi-programmer setup, outputting data via five DMX Processor 8000 units. A near identical backup system was also on standby.
The physical set featured eight stages. In addition to the more than 1,000 moving head fixtures, Hog consoles controlled all the LED pieces, including the set decorations, the interactive audience bracelets and pixel tubes. Because of the massive amount of pixel m

Details
UK - Lighting console manufacturer ChamSys is opening new headquarters in Southampton’s Brooklands Courtyard.
The facility features a multi-line manufacturing centre, which will enable the company to build its MagicQ Stadium and MagicQ Compact consoles simultaneously. Also inside are storage and dispatch warehousing area, R&D facilities, service department and customer training area along with a dedicated repair centre, two training rooms, and a pre-visualisation suite for visiting programmers.
Chamsys, which is celebrating 15 years in business this year, is officially opening the new HQ with an event on 2 September - contact the company on openhouse@chamsys.co.uk for details on how to attend.
“The new headquarters reflects our dedication to maintaining the highest quality standards as we grow,” comments C

Details
UK - Ambersphere Solutions has announced that Rob Beamer has joined the company as key account manager. Based in Liverpool, he will be representing the Ambersphere portfolio in the North of England.
Beamer has worked in theatre for 14 years before moving into sales 11 years ago, working for Stage Electrics and Sound Technology. He will make his Ambersphere exhibition debut at the upcoming PLASA Show (15-17 September, London Olympia).
“This is a new role created for Rob and will allow us to offer our northern clients a more attentive and personalised service,” says sales director Philip Norfolk. “Rob is professional, knowledgeable, calm and friendly, precisely what our clients appreciate. The whole Ambersphere team is delighted to have someone as exceptionally capable and good fun to join us”.
“I am really excited to have joined Ambersphere. It’s such

Details
USA - Vari-Lite has announced the VL800 Series of fixed and moving head LED fixtures. These cost-effective event fixtures bring a feature set specifically for mid-sized tours, productions, and entertainment lighting installations.
“Our goal with the VL800 Series was to introduce event fixtures that have been built with the DNA of Vari-Lite,” says Martin Palmer, senior product manager, Vari-Lite and Strand Luminaires at Signify. “This means that the fixtures look, move, and feel the way you would expect from us, but with a cost and feature set that fits installations and smaller rental applications. Our customers trust the Vari-Lite brand and the pre- and post-sale support behind it, and we’re committed to delivering on that promise.”
The new VL800 Series includes three new fixtures which have been designed to work together. The fixtures have been colour-mat
Page 733 of 3465

Latest Issue. . .