UK - Claypaky has announced that, with immediate effect, it will handle directly the distribution of its products in the UK market.
The Italian manufacturer has thanked its long-term UK distribution company Ambersphere Solutions; the collaboration between the two companies will continue for the after sales technical support for all the equipment that Ambersphere has supplied. The direct contacts with customers will be managed by Emilio Cornelli, a face already known to many, who returns as UK regional manager. 
Pio Nahum, CEO of Claypaky, comments: "The stage lighting market is changing rapidly and we decided that, in an influential market such as the UK, a direct relationship w

UK - Distribution company Ambersphere Solutions has announced a streamlining of its product portfolio.
Ambersphere MD, Glyn O’Donoghue, comments: “We have decided to dedicate our moving light offering to Ayrton Digital Lighting. It has been a real privilege to witness the innovation coming from the Ayrton development team and to experience the exceptional product-reliability first hand. We are very excited about the future working exclusively with Ayrton moving lights”.
O’Donoghue continues: “To allow us to focus solely on Ayrton, we have decided to cease our distribution relationship with Claypaky. However, we remain dedicated to providing ongoing service and support for all of the equipment we have sold”.
“I would like to thank the Claypaky team for working exclusively with Ambersphere for the

UK/USA - Green Hippo has appointed Ashley Hazlett as an inside sales representative at Green Hippo US, whilst Warren Keyes has joined as development manager for the UK team.
Hazlett, whose career originally started at Green Hippo, is bringing hands-on experience of the company’s solutions, including media server QC responsibilities at VER. “The first media server I ever learned on was a V3 Hippo. After working closely with the Green Hippo team and products over the years, I am thrilled to get the opportunity to represent a company and product I truly enjoy.”
Warren Keyes brings 16 years of professional programming experience to his new role at Green Hippo, including most recently, working with Microsoft in Seattle as an engineering manager covering Xbox and AR/VR. Warren has also worked at Skype and Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. “This role is the ideal op
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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

Germany - Sennheiser has appointed Ron Holtdijk as director business communication. He will be responsible for driving forward Sennheiser’s strategy and success in business communications, particularly in the field of ceiling array microphones and in the further growing of Sennheiser’s education market.
“The outstanding breadth, depth and international scope of Ron’s experience is an ideal fit for Sennheiser’s ambitious vision and company culture,” says Peter Claussen, COO at Sennheiser. “He will bring his broad experience and insight to our BizCom management team and play an instrumental role in driving forward our strategy in B2B markets.”
Ron Holtdijk will take on his new role with Sennheiser on 1 June 2019. He will be based at Sennheiser’s headquarters in Wedemark and report directly to Peter Claussen.
An accomplished audio industry executiv

Italy - Powersoft has released a series of training videos on YouTube for their audio design environment software ArmoníaPlus. The hour-long set of tutorials comprehensively covers the new features that Powersoft introduced with ArmoníaPlus when it was released last October. Aside from educating new users on the software, the goal of these tutorials is also to bring existing users who were familiar with its previous iteration, Armonía, up to speed.
ArmoníaPlus’s redesign includes a single window interface with four main views and takes further advantage of intuitive hotkeys and simplistic icons to allow users to move between functions efficiently. Users can move through four main steps: Design, Config, Tune, and Show, each offering a variety of functions and flexibility for different scenarios, as well as allowing users to audition different speaker presets easily. Th

Europe - The new Meat Rack from Milos provides a convenient transport and storage solution for light fixtures through the use of adjustable light bars or a hanging adapter for oversize lights. Height adjustable shelves can also be installed for storage and transport of a range of other items needed for a show.
The high quality 6082 aluminium frame features all welded construction for high strength and long-term durability. Built-in fork-lift pick-up points allow for convenient stacking, and its castor wheels and height adjustable handles on each rack end ensure easy handling. Its dimensions of 2.3m x 0.8m x 1.6m (L x W x H) optimize transport space to and from your events.
(Jim Evans)

UK - Lighting control manufacturer and specialist Zero 88 is all set for some serious networking and interaction in the highly convivial environment of PLASA Focus Leeds, taking place at the Royal Armories on 14-15 May.
The team including Jon Hole, Tyler Holpin, David Catterall, Edward Smith, Nathanael Orr and Charlie Madsen will be on Stand N-B12 and is looking forward to welcoming current and future professionals from all sectors of entertainment technology.
After successful take up and listening to feedback from previous years, Zero 88 is again providing free 75-minute training sessions through Tuesday 14 May on its award-winning FLX lighting console. Sessions start at 10:00, 11:30, 13:00, 14:30 and 16:00. Places can be booked in advance to guarantee a space via training@zero88.com - and guests can also feel free to drop in too.
“PLASA Focus Leeds has always

UK - Martin Dudley of Martin’s Lights has invested in the new Martin by Harman ERA 300 Profile, with six units already in action on the current Newton Faulkner tour.
Supplying lighting design and lighting equipment hire services, Martin's Lights recently celebrated its 25th birthday. Current and past clients of owner Martin Dudley include Newton Faulkner with whom he has been working with for 13 years, James Morrison (as lighting director for lighting designer Cate Carter), Heaven 17, Gilbert O'Sullivan, Magazine, The Specials and many more.
Having owned Martin fixtures a very long way back in the ‘DJ Series’ days of Magic Moons, Starflashes and Jem smoke machines, and of course experience of the countless Martin fixtures in the lighting rigs of venues and festivals, the new ERA 300 Profile modern day LED successor to the MAC 250 recently caught his attention.

Europe - Hayden Borgars has covered a broad spectrum of shows during his career as a lighting designer, including various music genres, corporate, dance and theatre.
Most recently he joined forces with American rap artist, Hoodie Allen (real name Steven Markowitz) for a British and European tour, at venues ranging from the 700-capacity Garage Glasgow to 2,000 Shepherds Bush Empire. Travelling with him throughout was an inventory of GLP X4 Bar 20s and JDC1 hybrid strobes, supplied by rental company, Siyan.
The tour was set up essentially as a pre-album promo tour in advance of Hoodie’s next album release this month.
Given the nature of the venues, Hayden simply assembled a powerful and scalable GLP floor package, giving him both versatility and big looks. He admitted he had been eager to use the JDC1s for some time, and his hunger only increased after GLP UK’s

Zimbabwe - Minister Michael Mehendere recently hosted a Night of Worship at UFIC Mutare, filling the venue with worshippers and beautiful music. Well known throughout Africa, Mehendere has worked with some of the best musicians on the continent, as well as being a senior pastor at the renowned United Family International Church.
For the Night of Worship, it was important the lighting helped transport the audience visually in the same way Mehendere’s gospel-driven music did spiritually. Blessing Bero of Events Evolution was tapped for lighting design, with Tatenda Rushwaya running the board for the show.
Using a mix of Chauvet DJ fixtures, Bero focused on creating warmth for the show through washes and special effects that would fit seamlessly with the inspiring and celebratory theme of the event.
“UFIC Mutare has a good stage, but it is not very large, so

New Zealand - NZ Sound Reinforcement recently deployed a JBL by Harman audio system at Bay Dreams music festival for performances by Cardi B, Tash Sultana, Rich the Kid and more.
Bay Dreams is an annual music festival that takes place every 2 January at Mount Maunganui. Established in 2016, Bay Dreams has quickly become one of New Zealand’s biggest summer music festivals. In 2019, the festival expanded to Nelson City with a second day of performances.
In order to deliver industry-leading sound for some of the biggest artists in the world, Bay Dreams recruited the help of NZ Sound Reinforcement, a full-service production company in New Zealand. NZ Sound partnered with JPRO, one of New Zealand's premier pro audio distribution companies, to deploy a JBL Professional audio system.
“The new JBL VTX A-Series systems have provided an amazing experience for all invo

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) has supplied the award-winning StageSmarts smartPDU power distribution system to creative technical production company, WCE-AV, to provide power management for its new lighting inventory.
WCE-AV works with some of the UK’s most high-profile conference, live event, exhibition, roadshow, and fashion show clients. Its end-to-end service covers everything from set & stage design through to lighting, AV, power & rigging equipment.
After recently upgrading all of the company's lighting inventory to modern LED-source fixtures, company director, Wayne Whitson was keen to find a power & distribution system which would offer maximum protection for the considerable new stock investment.
Wayne approached one-stop technology supplier, AC-ET, who he had purchased equipment from before, to suggest a suitable solution.

Italy - The Colosseum in Rome is one of the world’s busiest tourist attractions, with over six million visitors per year. Now, under the management of archaeological park director Alfonsina Russo, it has once again become a venue for all kinds of events.
Last year, visitors to the Colosseum were treated to a spectacular show, Sangue e Arena, at nightfall. This international collaboration between Canada and Italy offered a totally immersive experience, in English and Italian, with lights and remarkable holographic video effects at the heart of the ancient monument. wysiwyg was at the centre of all the action.
The Sangue e Arena project was the result of a close collaboration between Italian company, Electa Editore under the direction of the Parco Archeologico del Colosseo. Graphics eMotion and Lumin-ART gave life to the Colosseum, a world heritage site.

Ireland - Picture This played a record five sold out nights at Dublin’s 3Arena. This beat U2’s four nights and offered a lively, show-stopping performance to 60,000 adoring fans.
Helping make everything at the 3Arena bit look that bit more special was production designer Liam McCarthy, who spec’d over 150 Robe moving lights for this extravaganza, delivered by Irish rental company Just Lite Productions, and featuring 37 BMFL Spots, 36 Spiiders, 46 Pointes, 16 LEDWash 600s and 16 SuperSpikies.
Liam worked closely with the band and created some initial set and visual concepts based on their ideas of initially wanting a circular video screen - which was developed into two curved screens. Video content director Darragh McAuliffe and the team from content producers Algorithm were commissioned by Just Lite’s Paul Smith with input from the band. The IMAG camera mix dir

France - Ayrton has announced Levante, the company's new compact 300W LED wash, is shipping with immediate effect.
Weighing just 22kg, Levante is a miniaturised version of the Bora wash light, which matches the dimensions of Mistral and Diablo. With Levante, Ayrton has created a wash luminaire that can actually sculpture light, and added a high-transmission diffusion filter to the zoom lens group to erase the edge of the beam without changing its angle. A variable linear frost system allows the user to adjust the desired diffusion level with precision, says the company.
Delivering a light output in excess of 20,000 lumens (Levante-S) through its 138mm frontal lens, Levante’s optical system is specially developed for optimum wash applications. Its 13-lens proprietary optical system features a zoom ration in excess of 9:1 and a 6.3° to 58° zoom range, and p

Missing Out - Paul McCartney has accused a government funding body of having a “flawed process” that has seen the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts miss out on a potential £16m of funding. The Parliamentary Ombudsman is currently investigating the decision-making process of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, which has now been replaced by the Office for Students.
According to LIPA, which McCartney co-founded, the institution has lost out on £16m in potential funding over a four-year period due to a “series of errors” by the government body. LIPA says it has also lost a further £160,000, which has been spent on the first steps of a judicial review.
When applying for institution-specific funding in 2016, LIPA claims it was “failed at the first stage of the process” and was only allowed to proceed to the second stage following an appeal.

USA - DAS Audio of America has announced the appointment of John Fiorito as national sales manager installation & nightclubs. This newly created position is geared toward strengthening the company’s standing in the AV integration market by increasing the company’s sales and support capabilities. Fiorito started with DAS in February and is based out of the Miami headquarters.
Among his various duties he is responsible for the distribution of DAS Audio products to authorized installation dealers throughout the United States and Canada. This includes determining / selecting those dealers best suited to represent DAS while also developing business and marketing strategies. In addition to having an integral role in the sale of DAS products, Fiorito will also be involved in the company’s support services. In addition to assisting customers with the selection of product b

Europe - Astera’s new Helios range of LED tubes is now shipping following “record presale orders”, reports the company.
The new Helios tube was unveiled at the recent Prolight+Sound and has all the features and functionality of the popular TitanTube utilising the stable and well-respected technology. It offers “outstanding concept continuity in an even more transportable package - a neat and powerful little tube which can be mounted virtually anywhere”.
Like all Astera products, Helios comes with an assortment of accessories to cover every rigging and positioning need, wish and necessity.
The IP65 rated Helios has eight pixels and is half the size with half the battery weight of the TitanTube, but with the same high CRI and TCLI of 96 for skin tones and detail.
With up to 20 hours of battery run-time, it’s a suitable option for areas like pop-up

UK - EM Acoustics will unveil HALO-B at PLASA Focus, Leeds (stand N-C10) where it can be seen for the first time in the UK. The third system in the HALO family is a medium format, 110° horizontal dispersion line array for indoor and outdoor sound reinforcement. As its name suggests, HALO-B sits between HALO-A and HALO-C in both physical size and overall system output, and as such is perhaps the most versatile system in the family.
Built on the same ‘maximum headroom’ design principles as HALO-A to ensure consistent performance across all SPL levels and consistent horizontal dispersion pattern across the operating frequency band, HALO-B is a two-way reflex-loaded medium format line array element featuring a patent-pending proprietary HF emulation manifold which combines the energy of four 1-inch compression drivers into a plane-wave array. These are flanked by two 8-inch

UK - Elation Professional will be exhibiting on stand N-D31 at PLASA Focus Leeds tradeshow, taking place 14-15 May at the Royal Armouries.
The lighting manufacturer is also a Gold Sponsor and a Show Bar Sponsor at the show, which will be the first UK trade expo since Elation appointed Entedi Ltd as its new UK distributor
Elation will be showcasing the 50,000-lumen Proteus Maximus, a wash/beam and profile LED luminaire with a top-of-the-line design package that premieres as the brightest LED profile on the market. With a custom designed 950W LED engine and large 180mm front lens, Maximus has the power to cut through at even great distances and its IP65 protection means it can be used exposed on outdoor shows.
Elation is also highlighting two new luminaires in its award-winning Artiste line of theatrical grade moving heads. The 45,000-lumen Artiste Monet is a full

USA - Jen Fok says that she enjoys making “large gestures” that mix colour and shadow, evidenced by her work as the lighting designer on Qui Nguyen’s family saga Vietgone, which is running at the Boston Centre for the Arts from until 25 May.
An Emmy Award-winning writer, Qui recounts the story of his Vietnamese parents, who met in an Arkansas refugee camp following the end of the war in 1975. His play is a delightful mashup of hip-hop, romance, road trip, Kung Fu and myriad other elements that make up the mosaic of life. Scenes morph radically during the telling of this story, and Fok’s lighting never fails to keep pace, thanks in part to its evocative colour changes, made with help from Chauvet Professional COLORdash Par-Hex 12 fixtures, supplied by High Output.
Positioned on the third Unistrut position, the RGBAW+UV LED wash fixtures were instrumental in cre

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