Details
Italy - Prase Media Technologies is the latest addition to Absen’s value added distributor (VAD) network. Prase will promote Absen LED products in Italy and provide training for local end users as well as building showrooms, exhibiting at relevant trade fairs and organising roadshows.
The company joins a list of Midwich Group plc group members from France, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and Spain. The agreement, which is already into effect, will also strengthen the growing video portfolio of the Veneto-based distributor.
“Prase started life as an audio distributor, setting very high standards for ourselves along the way,” comments Ennio Prase, managing director and BDM at Prase Media Technologies. “Recently, we have been working hard to build our video portfol

Details
USA - Biamp has acquired Audioprof Group International, the parent company of Community Loudspeakers and Apart Audio.
The two audio brands will join as separate product families within Biamp's product portfolio but business functions will gradually blend to form a single Biamp business.
Rashid Skaf, Biamp president, CEO, and co-chairman, comments: “I am tremendously excited to complete this transaction. Building a comprehensive lineup of speakers has been a priority of mine as we move to position Biamp as a full line provider of professional audiovisual solutions. Acquiring Apart Audio and Community Loudspeakers was my preferred route to accomplishing that quickly with incredibly strong and respected brands. The many products added to our portfolio give us powerful positions in several key growth markets for Biamp - most notably retail, hospitality, restaurants, sta

Details
USA - Bandit Lites has appointed Jesse Poreca to the sales team. Poreca joins the company’s Charlotte office as an installation and service specialist where he will assist in project management, installation and customer support of new theatrical lighting system install projects and renovations along with assisting the sales and installation division to provide existing clients customer service support, service calls and repairs.
“Jesse brings years of permanent AVL installation experience to the team and will immediately lead another crew to service the multiple ongoing projects we have,” said Chris Barbee, Bandit Lites director of sales and installations. “He is a very welcomed addition to an incredibly busy time of growth.”
(Jim Evans)
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
UK - Polar has announced that Biamp’s new Parlé ceiling microphones are available for shipping. Aimed at conference rooms and utilising the Beamtracking technology found in the TCM-1 pendant microphone, Biamp has responded to a growing demand amongst architects, designers and end users for ‘invisible’ technologies, with the TCM-X ceiling microphone.
With four 90° zones for full 360°room coverage, the TCM-X’s beam tracking technology, which actively tracks and intelligently mixes conversations, works straight out of the box, simplifying installation and reducing commissioning time.
Each microphone uses just one channel of acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) for far more efficient processing resource utilisation than conventional beamforming models. The range also includes the TCM-XA with 2-channel PoE and amplifier for further ease of installation (requiring onl

Details
USA - Vari-Lite has announced that its new Vari-Lite VL6500 Wash is now shipping.
The high-output wash lighting fixture, first demonstrated at Prolight+Sound 2019 in Frankfurt, combines the VL6000 Beam’s arena-scale performance with a visual attraction reminiscent of the legendary VL5. The fixture offers show designers a mix of modern power and vintage styling.
“The initial response to the VL6500 Wash has been tremendous, and it’s not surprising really, because we made this fixture as a direct response to the requests we have received from lighting designers,” explains Martin Palmer, senior product manager, Vari-Lite and Strand Luminaires at Signify. “We partnered with designers every step of the way when creating this fixture and tailored it to provide the capabilities our customers asked for most often.”
Palmer reports that customers like that the

Details
USA - ADJ has announced the expansion of its Focus series of LED-powered moving head fixtures with the introduction of the Focus Beam LED.
The first dedicated beam fixture in the range, this new model generates a concentrated beam that is suited for creating impressive and engaging aerial effects.
Powered by an 80W white (7400K) LED light source with 50,000-hour average life, Focus Beam LED features an optical system that creates an output comparable to an MSD 5R lamp. The front lens projects a beam with a 5° angle that has an even field with no hot spots, and which remains uniform over long projection distances.
The fixture is also compact and lightweight, measuring 10.96" x 6.85" x 17.61" / 278 x 174 x 447mm (LxWxH) and weighing 27 lb (12.25 kg), whilst its relatively low profile also makes suitable for installations in venues with limited ceiling height or f

Details
USA - Two Princess Cruises ships - Diamond Princess and Sun Princess - have undergone a major upgrade to their entertainment offerings with a new approach to live sound, bringing L-ISA Hyperreal Sound and Immersive Hyperreal Sound experiences to their guests.
Princess Cruises decided to raise the on-board sound reinforcement to a new standard and has specified L-Acoustics L-ISA configurations, supplied by L-Acoustics certified provider Norwest Productions.
L-ISA is an object-based immersive sound technology that uses placement of sound sources to achieve spatialisation, enabling anything from a customisable, ultra-realistic live sound field to fully immersive 360° sound design.
Princess Cruises entertainment experience department began exploring implementation of immersive live sound, noting that live performance audiences are increasingly exposed to immersive

Details
Europe - It was a coincidence that the paths of Papa Roach and lighting designer Mathias Kuhn should cross.
"About two months ago a lighting man was looking for a few shows in Russia and a festival gig in Germany," recalls Kuhn. “Three months later it became Papa Roach’s European tour, while another colleague took care of the gigs in the USA.“
For Kuhn, the band made their decision in his favour after a festival tour of Europe last year. “It just feels good when the lighting is turned on,” says frontman and band leader Jacoby Shaddix. “It’s a lot of fun for me too,” retorts Kuhn. “Performing live, this band is simply full of energy, and meanwhile I‘ve practically become a member of the family.”
Currently Kuhn and Papa Roach are more or less constantly on the move. After a support tour with Shinedown in the USA, playing mainly arenas, in the

Details
USA - Sue the T. Rex has a new home in the Chicago Field Museum’s Griffin Halls of Evolving Planet.
Lighting and AV presentation for Sue’s new home were designed by Lightswitch Chicago using ETC and Xicato luminaires and ETC controls. The fossil is named after Sue Hendrickson, who discovered the skeleton in South Dakota in 1990.
Following a three-month prototyping phase to show the curators how Sue would be lit the new quarters, the design team at Lightswitch Chicago produced a meticulously-cued AV presentation worthy of the $8.7m fossil.
“Conservation of the delicate stones and resins is very important - Sue will receive about a quarter of the light, and none of the direct sunlight it did before,” says Thatcher Waller, senior lighting designer for Lightswitch Chicago.
The project called for the complex integration of control protocols and diverse

Details
Hungary - Alt-rock band Vad Fruttik (Wild Fruits) headlined a special concert to celebrate the eighth season opening of Budapest Park, one of the largest outdoor venues in Europe.
Lighting designer Peter Pálocska from Budapest rental company Lajter Light designed a production lighting scheme to ensure the band and their 8,500 fans enjoyed a memorable night out.
Part of his distinctive luminescent styling for this show was a backwall of 72 Robe Spiider LED wash beam fixtures, which added drama and excitement to the visual picture.
Pálocska has also lit many other concerts in Budapest Park - which features a 24m x 12m x 12m (WxDxH) stage - and a landmark gig which any Hungarian band is extremely proud to play.
Vad Fruttik trusted him to produce something special for this show, utilising a combination of the house lighting fixtures (including moving lights

Details
Norway - Prostage, the Oslo-based distributors of Prolights, invited lighting designer Fredrik Jönsson to lead a two-day workshop hosted in Oslo’s Riksteatret. The designer discussed various design techniques, stories and lessons learned throughout his career in the entertainment industry.
Fredrik Jönsson designed the lighting for the international Eurovision final in Malmö in 2013 and in Stockholm in 2016 and was awarded an LLB Award for best Lighting Design for his work on the 2013 Eurovision final. In 2019, he designed the lighting for Melodifestivalen (the national Swedish Eurovision finals), bringing his grand total of live performances for Melodifestivalen to 103.
Jönsson drew from his vast experience of designing global concert tours, international events and broadcast and concocted the two-day interactive seminar program covering topics such as bas

Details
USA - Prolyte Group has partnered with Houston entrepreneur Craig Koopersmith to distribute Prolyte products under his rigging and trussing services company, Sabre Structures.
Koopersmith is the CEO of the Sabre Group of Companies, which also includes service exhibit and design firm Skyline Displays of Houston, and corporate interiors and signage specialist, Innovative Environments. The Group supports the tradeshow, display and interior environment sectors and works with Houston-based clients ranging from sole proprietors to Fortune 100 corporations.
The addition of Prolyte products will complement Sabre Structures’ existing display modules whilst enabling the company to offer larger, truss-based tradeshow exhibits and stands. It will also expand the Group’s operation into the event staging and entertainment sectors.
Keith Bohn, Prolyte general sales manager

Details
Spain - Midwich has announced its Spanish subsidiary Earpro S.A has acquired the entire issued share capital of value-added lighting solutions distributor Entertainment Equipment Supplies S.L (EES).
Based near San Sebastian and founded in 2004 by Nacho Acha-Orbea, EES distributes products from key vendors including Robe Lighting, Verlinde and Prolyte on an exclusive basis to the Spanish market with a focus on the live events and rental sectors.
The acquisition will strengthen Midwich’s position in the Spanish and Portuguese markets, particularly in relation to lighting.
Miguel Mezquita, MD of Earpro, comments: "Having known Nacho and his team for a number of years, I am confident that we can look forward to a successful partnership between Earpro and EES. I believe we will now be able to provide customers of both companies with an even higher level of service

Details
Then Play On - Entertainment venues in Scotland will receive protection from noise complaints after the ‘agent of change’ planning principle was enshrined into Scottish law. The principle means if an existing entertainment venue is in place before a new development is built nearby, the developer is responsible for soundproofing against noise.
An amended version of the Planning (Scotland) Bill was passed into law on 21 June, which included the agent of change principle as well as four other references to culture. The other references require culture to be considered in local development plans, town and county planning and the country’s National Planning Framework.
A group representing 50 arts organisations in Scotland called Culture Counts has welcomed the changes. Executive leader of Culture Counts Jennifer Hunter says: “The Planning (Scotland) Bill has recogni

Details
USA - Experts in hearing wellness at Sensaphonics recently held a Gold Circle Seminar in Chicago to promote hearing protection practices in the music industry.
Five audiologists from across the US learned the basics of live sound production along with insights on how to help musicians and sound engineers achieve both robust stage monitoring while retaining their long-term hearing health. Sensaphonics president, Dr. Michael Santucci and sound engineering consultant Joe Tessone of Mystery Street Recording Company, led the two-day seminar.
“One of the biggest issues with IEMs is that they aren’t covered in audiology school,” says Santucci. “The Gold Circle Seminar fills that gap by teaching how IEMs work, how they are used professionally, and how they can be used more safely. Where others offer vague suggestions on how to use in-ears safely, Sensaphonics remains u

Details
UK - AV and event production company Blitz has announced that it has added the Sennheiser Digital 6000 wireless microphone series to its inventory.
Blitz is also one of the first companies in the UK to add the SK6212 mini-bodypack transmitter to its inventory, meaning it now has an even greater offering for clients.
Both Blitz and Sennheiser recently worked in partnership, exhibiting at this year’s ABBT Theatre Show at Alexandra Palace, and had their technical advisors on-hand to give visitors the chance to see the latest products and technology on offer and give advice to help sound designers and engineers boost the sound quality and reliability at events and shows.
Aron Ross, director of sound, at Blitz, comments: “We are delighted to be one of the first production companies in the UK to be able to offer our clients the very latest in sound technology from

Details
USA - Bandit Lites is providing the lighting for the Peter Frampton Finale - The Farewell Tour, presented by SiriusXM, a nearly 50-date run this summer and fall produced by Live Nation.
Frampton has announced he will retire from regular vigorous touring at the end of this year due to his diagnosis of Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM), and with a career spanning over more than half a century, he has a massive body of work to draw from for his legion of fans. “Peter Frampton helped shape the sound of the 70’s and it is an incredible honor to be a part of this historic farewell tour,” said Bandit Lites vice president Mike Golden.
This tour reunited lighting designer Chris Lisle and Frampton, who had worked together seven years ago. “To be a part of this final tour of his career was truly an honour,” says Lisle. “He is such a great person both on and off sta

Details
USA - Behind The Scenes (BTS) holiday cards are now on sale for 2019, the charity has announced.
All proceeds will benefit BTS, which provides financial assistance to entertainment technology professionals who are seriously ill or injured.
Three card ordering options are being offered through the BTS Boutique, the charity’s online ordering facility. These are personalised cards, card packs of 10 with a standard greeting, and electronic/email versions.
Six new designs are featured this year. Scenic Art Studios has contributed designs by Irina Portnyagina and Athena Parella. Mount Vernon Senior High School is represented by Andreana Carlino and Alex Elmendorf. Perennial favorite Robert Mendoza is back and we are delighted to welcome Tupac Martir/Satore Studio.
Orders will be taken until 30 September and orders will be shipped by late November. View and ord

Details
UK - Following a sold-old run at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Trevor Nunn’s revival of the classic Broadway Musical, Fiddler on the Roof, has taken up residence in the West End at London’s Playhouse Theatre.
Sound designer Gregory Clarke was approached by Nunn to design both productions. Clarke chose to use EM Acoustics equipment throughout, based on a main Halo-C line array system supplemented by EM Acoustics’ EMS Series for the wider vocal and orchestra systems.
Clarke explains that the design brief for this version of Fiddler was to create an immersive experience for the audience. “A great deal of work was done to modify the auditorium in order to transform it from a familiar West End venue into a plausible Russian village. It looks and feels wonderful but inevitably loudspeaker positions were severely limited. Halo-C was instrumental in miti

Details
Spain - The Canary Islands boasts one of the most spectacular and outstanding annual carnivals in the world, where the streets explode with colourful parades, outdoor parties and music events on every island.
This year was no exception with around 600,000 people coming to enjoy the exuberant display of colour and light. One major highlight was Una noche en Río, a show directed by Israel Reyes with set designed by Carlos Santos, and lighting design and technical direction by Jonay Díaz, partner of RGB Canarias S.Coop. Díaz’s lighting for this show, which ran for 21 performances, was bolstered by 40 Ayrton Ghibli LED moving heads, supplied by GAM Eventos.
The carnival has gained a global audience and Díaz is very aware of how the eye-catching event transcends the borders of Spain. “The Drag Queen Gala is seen everywhere in the world with spectacular audien

Details
El Salvador - Atlona has appointed TelNet S.A. as its distribution partner for El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
TelNet will focus on growing Atlona’s presence throughout the region’s community of IT and networking integrators. A long-time Panduit representative, TelNet has built a large customer base in the telecom and datacom markets, where the company regularly supplies and designs network infrastructure and protection systems. TelNet has also fielded inquiries from integrators active in AV-leaning verticials such as higher education.
Sylvia Sierra, regional manager at TelNet S.A., comments: “We are hearing from many integrators and end users in schools and universities that want to manage their AV signals over the network, and our long-term relationship with Panduit makes Atlona a perfect fit for our business strategy. Atlona’s OmniStream AV o
Page 750 of 3465

Latest Issue. . .