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Italy - dLive was found in abundance again at this year’s Primo Maggio event in Rome, Italy. Broadcast live via the RAI national TV channel, the 29th edition of the annual event showcased eight hours of spectacular live performances from 31 major and emerging artists – including various national favourites such as Daniele Silvestri, Ghali and Subsonica – and attracted over 500,000 attendees.
Supplied by local production company ABC and supported by Allen & Heath’s Italian distributors, Exhibo S.p.A, the full set-up comprised eight dLive systems, five IP8 Controllers, an SQ, DX Remote Audio Expanders and additional Dante, SuperMADI and gigaACE cards.
As per past events, Primo Maggio featured its impressive rotating dual-stage setup – allowing for one act to

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France - Nexo’s ID Series loudspeakers are playing a key role in a new digital exhibition in Paris, which offers an immersive AV experience with the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh.
One of the most innovative artistic experiences in the city is currently hidden behind the unremarkable façade of a former ironworks foundry in the 11th arrondissement. Inside this 19th century space, one of France’s leading cultural producers Culturespaces has opened a new exhibition dedicated to Vincent Van Gogh.
Van Gogh - the Starry Night is a visual and musical creation realised by Gianfranco Iannuzzi, Renato Gatto and Massimiliano Siccardi. In the same presentation is a short programme by Danny Rose dedicated to the imagery of Japan. Both use the AMIEX technology (Art and Music Immersive Experience) developed by Culturespaces in 2012. The AMIEX Concept is based on the virtua

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USA - On 9 May, Björk opened her Cornucopia season at New York’s newest cultural centre The Shed, utilising a full 360 degree d&b Soundscape system powered by the d&b En-Scene object based mixing and En-Space room emulation software.
Cornucopia is Björk’s most elaborate stage production to date incorporating stunning visuals, intricate stage movements and a fully integrated immersive sound design, made possible by the d&b Soundscape.
Beginning the sound design conception in a studio in Iceland the production has progressed through production rehearsals in the Backstage Centre, London, to The Shed in New York City. Cornucopia’s sound was designed by Björk and FoH sound engineer John Gale, supported by Southby Productions, and Steve Jones from d&b.
Steve Jones explains, “Björk wanted the sound for Cornucopia
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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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USA - On the North American leg of their current Timeless tour, multinational classical crossover group Il Divo is being supported by a smoothly flowing and versatile lightshow anchored by Chauvet Professional fixtures, supplied by Showtime Sound LLC. A collection of 22 Rogue R2 Wash fixtures, along with 20 Rogue R1 FX-B units and seven STRIKE 4 multi-formatted lights, are used in the touring rig.
Flown on the upstage and midstage truss and hung on vertical truss towers, the Rogue R2 Wash fixtures bathe the stage in even fields of richly coloured light. While the overhead RGBW units bathe the stage in a variety of colours to reflect different moods, their 12° to 49° zoom range allows changes in the coverage area throughout each show to create a variety of different looks.
The linear Rogue R1 FX-B fixtures are used to frame the stage. With their infinite pan an

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USA - NEP Group has announced the promotion of Graham Andrews to global president of NEP live events and CEO of the Creative Technology Group. The announcement follows significant growth in NEP’s live events operating segment over the last several years, growing from two US-based businesses in 2012 to today a family of six brands and one of the largest live events platforms in the world.
As global president, Andrews will continue to report to CEO Kevin. Rabbitt and oversee NEP live events globally to help each division accelerate growth, service clients across geographies and cross-sell services from NEP’s other operating segments.
Andrews has worked in the live events industry since 1976, beginning his career as an audio engineer working on theatre and music productions around the world.
Rabbitt says: “We have great opportunities ahead of us – and the r

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Europe - The Milos Corner Brace HD is a new, advanced roof corner reinforcement concept that eliminates the need for guy wires in small to medium-sized roof structures. Compared to guy wires, installation is greatly simplified, the total time for roof construction is noticeably decreased, and ballast requirements are reduced, says the company.
A strong (loading capacity of more than 30 kN), yet compact, all aluminium design provides the same strength and stability as guy wires, while giving staff and performers increased access to the stage due to the elimination of rear and side cross guy wires.
(Jim Evans)

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France - Elation Professional’s French distributor, Best Audio & Lighting, is inviting lighting professionals to its studio near Paris 21-23 May for a chance to demo and get hands on with Elation lights, including the newest luminaires in Elation’s comprehensive product line.
This is an opportunity to check out Elation’s award-winning product line and get up close with some of the newest offerings such as the Proteus Maximus, Artiste Monet, Rayzor 760, Proteus Smarty Hybrid and Fuze Profile. Lighting control products from Obsidian Control System like the NX 2, M-Touch and M-Play will also be available for hands-on examination. Registration is requested at info@bestaudio-lighting.fr
(Jim Evans)

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South Africa - DWR Distribution is hosting a studio lighting workshop presented by Peter Rieck on 28 May from 9am to 5pm local time.
Peter is well known in the South African industry for lighting countless studio and television productions. His easy-going nature and wealth of experience will make this a training course not to be missed.
The course will be hosted at DWR, 9 Zeiss Street, Laserpark, Honeydew. The cost is R450 and includes eats and refreshments. Bookings can be made here.
(Jim Evans)

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UK - At the beginning of May, a two-year project came to be realised for inspirational Guildford School of Acting lighting tutor Michelle (Mig) Burgess when her design installation Blackout was revealed to the industry.
Harnessing the collective powers of light, sound and video in the hope of affecting genuine changes in an approach to mental health, Mig set about on her quest over two years ago.
Mig is open about living with Bipolar II disorder – a condition with which she was finally diagnosed in her late twenties. And for the past couple of years, she has been formulating a plan to create a design installation to portray, in a sensory way, the mental journey inside a Bipolar II patient’s head as they transition through a manic episode.
The result has been a highly provocative, moving installation, experienced alone for six minutes, and which, over

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China - PK Sound has appointed Polar Audio Guangzhou as its distributor in China, effective immediately. The deal marks PK Sound’s first commitment to growing into the APAC region.
On the appointment, CEO and chief engineer at PK Sound, Jeremy Bridge, commented: “The deal came about as Polar Audio was searching for a high-quality audio brand to complement to their high-end video and laser offerings. As a renowned audio designer, Polar Audio’s CTO became aware of the technology and made multiple visits to the factory, and attended live events where our loudspeakers were being used as well. Polar Audio was looking for a world class company that they believed could overtake established top level brands. PK Sound has just the right technology to do so.”
According to Bridge, Polar Audio combines the experience of long-serving industry professionals with a large netw

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The 11th edition of PLASA Focus Leeds will open its doors from 14-15 May at the Royal Armouries Museum, unleashing the world of live entertainment technology on the north of England.
Spanning two sold-out halls, the popular show provides a platform for 175+ leading brands, all geared up to showcase the very best the industry has to offer, including a variety of products arriving on UK shores directly from international launches.
Lighting will make an impression with Robe, Chauvet, Elation and Avolites; huge audio will be delivered by Bose, d&b audiotechnik, Funktion-One and Sennheiser; and event specialists include SFL Group, UK Rigging and Hawthorn.
Beyond the show floor, the programme will see industry leaders present content that is both insightful and entertaining, guaranteeing visitors will depart from the show with ready-to-apply knowledge and endless inspirat

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Special Funding - Grassroots music venues across England will now be able to apply for special funding from a ring-fenced budget intended to support the sector and help stem their decline. Arts Council England has announced it has set aside £1.5m of National Lottery money to fund projects hosting and promoting live music in grassroots venues. It comes amid an ongoing campaign to protect small venues following a period of decline across the UK.
Opening this week, the scheme will accept applications for between £1,000 and £40,000 from music venues and promoters. The funding will sit within the Arts Council’s project grants programme, but by having a separate budget for grassroots music venues, ACE said it wanted to encourage applications by reducing the high level of competition faced when applying for the main project grants scheme.
Arts Council chief executive Dar

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UK - Over a thousand delegates from the private rental sector gathered in London’s ExCel on 2 April to attend the Annual ARLA Propertymark Conference and exhibition. Protec European Events were trusted by their client Westrade Group Ltd to provide a full event technical service package.
Moderated by BBC News presenter Julian Worricker, the conference focussed on the importance of legislation, and how to keep abreast of industry issues.
Project manager Fraser McCaig reports, “Protec designed and built the 40m x 4.2m stage with six integrated 4m high x 1m wide LED video columns supported by OV40 truss 4m columns that we anchored to 100kg steel base plates with the set covered by seven colour Polycril wraps. We recessed the centre section of the set with laser line graphics for branding which was enhanced with DMX controlled LED strips on both sides and on top. We al

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USA - Djembe! The Show is an energy-filled, theatrical concert experience that mixes traditional West African beats with modern takes on contemporary music that has toured Europe and even been featured on Ted Talks and Oprah’s Super Soul Sessions. It made its limited US debut at the Apollo Theatre in Chicago with lighting design by Zach Blane who used an all Elation LED lighting rig to accentuate the production. Support was provided by Elation dealer ILC.
Djembe!, which opened 10 April and ran through 12 May, is a celebration of African culture with drumming and musical performances by a cast composed mostly of West African musicians. Guests of the show were handed a drum – a djembe – and invited to play along.
The Apollo Theatre features a three-quarter thrust stage with the audience on three sides, a setup that gives guests an intim

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USA - Convergent Technologies Design Group has completed the design of an outdoor sound system in the open quad area of the new Eastern Carolina University Student Union campus.
Founded in 1907 in Greenville, North Carolina, East Carolina University is a public doctoral/research university. With over 5,500 academic and administrative staff and around 30,000 students, it is the fourth largest university in North Carolina.
The new, 214,000sq.ft Student Union is the largest construction project on the main campus since the Science and Technology Building opened in 2001. It will house the Dowdy Student Store, five dining options, student government and trustee office spaces, meeting rooms, a theatre and a large ballroom. The facility also features a five level, 724 space parking deck and a new 6,500sq.ft regional energy plant.
At the centre of the new campus is a lar

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Spain - Lighting designer Eduardo Valverde of Pixelmap Studios utilised the dynamic multi-functionality of Robe’s MegaPointe moving lights together with Robe LEDWash 800s and other fixtures to help create the atmosphere for Popland, a musical journey staged at the WiZink Centre in Madrid.
The show was a diverse electronic and symphonic fusion illustrating pop, rock and dance music ‘moments’ from the last 50 years, presented by one of Spain’s most influential mix-masters, DJ Nano, in conjunction with Catalan experimental theatre company La Fura dels Baus and the Darevitam! Orchestra conducted by Bruno Axel.
The event - three years in the making - was the brainchild of DJ Nano, who initiated with the concept together with Sharemusic! who produced this very special event with another two major Spanish promoters, Planet Events and Disorder.
Eduardo and

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UK - Pop artist Billie Eilish’s sold-out global tour dates feature flyable Allen & Heath dLive rigs at both FOH and monitor positions. Drew Thornton, FOH engineer, and Salim Akram, monitor engineer, use compact, 12-fader C1500’s to mix over 50 inputs from an array of live instruments and backing tracks. Their rig is fed by a quartet of DX168 stage boxes connecting to a DM0 MixRack via EtherCon connections.
Thornton designed the dLive system to travel with the band. “Throwing down your stage box and pushing out everything patched and line-checked in 10 minutes is amazing,” he said. “We plug it in and it works like a dream. And I’m a firm believer that if you get your mix right, you can handle things with as few as eight faders. Having 12 faders on the C1500 is a luxury.”
Akram noted, “I built my dLive show file on the airplane. I’ve been on a lot o

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UK - After supporting various Esports Championship Series (ECS) shows at Wembley’s SSE Arena over the last few years, Sibar Production & Design, along with Capital Sound (and their Martin Audio MLA loudspeaker array), moved to the ICC Auditorium at ExCeL for the FACEIT Global Summit: PUBG Classic. FACEIT is the leading competitive gaming platform and organisers of some of the largest esports events in Europe and North America including ECS, Universal Open and the FACEIT London CS:GO Major.
Capital has been regularly contracted to provide the audio reinforcement for such gameplay events by Sibar’s Simon Barrington, but this represented an entirely fresh challenge. According to Capital’s project manager Robin Conway, “It was based on a completely different gaming platform and different team and elimination set-up.
“The space at ExCeL is tricky as was the de

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Macau - Six Robert Juliat 600W LED Oz followspots have been installed as part of the recent upgrade of the spectacular Franco Dragone show, The House of Dancing Water in Macau’s City of Dreams. The powerful, long-throw LED models were supplied with push-pull, six-way colour changers and heavy-duty adjustable yokes in anticipation of the show’s extremely busy schedule.
The House of Dancing Water has been seen by over 5m people since its premiere in 2010. It is probably the largest and most spectacular water-based show in the world and, after more than 3000 performances, the longest running show on the Cotai Strip.
The show takes place in the purpose-built, 2000-seat, 270° in-the-round, House of Dancing Water Theatre and is directed by Franco Dragone. The story is focused around a huge 50m x 7m deep pool containing 3.7m gallons of water and involves 90

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UK - A new Scaff Boom Arm will be debuted by Doughty Engineering at this year's PLASA Focus. Visitors to stand N-C25 can see the new piece of kit, which joins the existing Boom Arm range and has been designed in response to customer demand.
Mark Chorley, design engineer at Doughty explained: "The new Scaff Boom Arm is very much a 'get out of jail' item that we see as being an essential part of any took-kit. It will allow the user to make their own boom arm out of materials that they have to hand, in the event that they find themselves on site and suddenly needing a boom arm of a certain length."
The Scaff Boom Arm will take 48mm aluminium barrel or scaff tube which can be cut to size depending on the requirements of the particular project. While Doughty is unable to quote a safe working load for the product, each piece of kit will come with a chart, which is also avail

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USA - The Flyer - San Francisco at Fisherman’s Wharf’s Pier 39 gives both tourists and locals alike a bird’s eye view of the city using cinematic artistry and HD film footage captured with the help of drones and helicopters, and blended with computer-generated imagery.
As spectacular as the video is, though, visitors may be even more dazzled by the attraction’s audio thanks to an engaging cinematic soundtrack played back through a high-impact, high-fidelity sound system from L-Acoustics.
The soundtrack and sound effects were written, created and produced by Mathieu Vachon, audio director for Triotech, the Québec-based company behind The Flyer - San Francisco. Triotech is quickly establishing itself as a major player in the global amusement and theme park industry, and its latest creation follows a fast-paced point-of-view narrative that both documents the city
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