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Germany - The Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology (IDMT) has upgraded the highly specialised audio setup at its Ilmenau headquarters with the installation of Powersoft’s Ottocanali 4K4 DSP+D amplifier platforms.
Fraunhofer IDMT - which focuses on applied research in the field of audiovisual media - is widely known for developing technologies for the digital media industry.
The institute has made the decision to invest in a new range of Powersoft Ottocanali 4k4 DSP+D amplifier platforms, further strengthening its long-standing relationship with the manufacturer.
René Rodigast, business manager in the acoustics department at Fraunhofer IDMT, commented: “We have a long story with Powersoft and have developed a good understanding of their systems o

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UK - Flare is a busy and successful UK-based event lighting, visuals and technical specialist which was established by designers Ben Cash and David Amos in 2008. The company has invested heavily in Astera’s battery powered wireless LED products in the last 18 months and has over 100 x AX3 LiteDrops in stock which are used in a multiplicity of ways on most of their projects.
Ben Cash explained that they originally started looking at the very compact AX3s to use as table centres - covered by an opaque dome - for the assorted corporate and gala dinner events that they supply. This is an application for which they needed a great looking, reliable and long-lasting LED product that was battery powered and could be easily wirelessly operated. The AX3s proved a perfect solution.
Ben and the team also soon discovered that the AX3s could be used elsewhere at events and gigs, f

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UK - The Royal Opera House (ROH) recently underwent a comprehensive refurbishment to improve its facilities, including redesigning the Linbury Theatre (see the report in LSi March).
The £50m Open Up refurbishment project also created a new café and improved restaurant and shop.
The Linbury Theatre presents chamber work for opera and dance as well as live orchestral performances. The ROH also has a thriving immersive live to cinema department, and a broadcast team. To make workflow as flexible, and as smooth as possible, Martin Adams, and the in-house technical team have upgraded the space, deploying an SSL L500 Plus console at the heart, with a Dante AoIP infrastructure.
From the initial audio make
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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 - Designing an audio system for a live arena show or the installation of a multi-zone distributed PA are commonplace activities these days; combining the two in a single venue for a one-off concert is a consideration of an entirely different dimension.
But when the Foo Fighters were asked to headline a one-off event for Super Bowl Saturday, Lez Dwight (director) of Britannia Row Productions handed precisely those project design responsibilities to their Foo Fighters’ touring systems engineer Adam Smith.
“The Jack Murphy temporary structure chosen by DirecTV for their live stream spectacular Super Saturday Night was essentially a 100ft-tall dome roof,” explains Smith. “At 72,000sq/ft in terms of coverage there were two major aspects for the 8,500 fans who attended. The main listening area on the flat floor was relatively straight forward: L/R

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China - To provide guests with an unparalleled experience of undersea immersion, China’s new Atlantis Sanya resort deployed an array of Harman audio, video, lighting and control systems.
Located in the city of Sanya on China’s Hainan island, Atlantis Sanya is the latest Atlantis-themed resort operated by Kerzner International. The resort’s 52-story luxury hotel boasts more than 1,300 guest rooms, including extravagant underwater suites that look out into the resort’s massive Lost Chambers aquarium.
The vast Aquaventure waterpark occupies nearly 200,000sq.m and includes waterslides that pass through the aquarium, in addition to snorkelling, scuba diving and live dolphin and sea lion interactions. Other amenities include conference rooms and banquet halls for meetings and events, an upscale shopping centre and 13 restaurants and bars.
The resort deployed an

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UK - The Piece Hall in Halifax, West Yorkshire, is one of the UK's best-preserved examples of Industrial Revolution-era architecture. A recent comprehensive renovation of the premises has given its courtyard a renewed purpose of an exchange for the arts, culture and music.
One of the events making use of the transformed Piece Hall courtyard is the Spiegeltent - a pop-up live venue akin to a circus big top, which caters to a varied musical programme in the run up to the festive season. For the most recent incarnation, which included a mix of bands, cabaret and comedy, in addition to headlining musical acts such as Gary Delaney, Yorkshire-based Sound & Light UK LTD integrated 10 Chauvet Professional Rogue R2 Wash and 10 Rogue R1 Beam fixtures into their lighting rig.
Given the wide spectrum of performances taking place during the three-week festival, Sound & Li

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USA - Dierks Bentley 2018 Mountain High Tour in support of his ninth studio album The Mountain played over 60 large-scale venues - including a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden.
To meet the demands of the cross-country tour, Bentley and his production crew trusted PK Sound Trinity Advanced Robotic Line Array and Gravity subwoofers to deliver superior sound, system flexibility and easy rigging - whether in an arena, stadium, or amphitheatre.
FOH and system engineer James ‘Pugsley’ McDermott said the Mountain High Tour marked his 13th year on the road with Dierks Bentley, though this is the first time they've added Trinity Advanced Robotic Line Arrays to the PA system. "It's been a technological advancement not only in deployment, but also sonically," McDermott says of the new PA system, which features full-size main hangs with up to 16 Trinity boxes per

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USA - Sound designer and engineer Chris Sannino recently relied on DPA Microphones to utilise a discreet, wireless sound amplification source for the production of Romeo and Juliet at Philadelphia’s Wilma Theatre.
Already having an established history with DPA Microphones, Sannino chose DPA’s d:facto 4018VL Linear Vocal Microphone, d:screet 4061 Miniature Omnidirectional Microphone and d:vote 4099 Instrument Microphone.
Since 2013, he has used the d:vote 4099 on a wide variety of woodwinds, pianos, string instruments and discrete theatre set mic’ing. The d:vote 4099, d:screet 4061 and d:fine 4088 (among others) have been featured in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, New York City Summer Stage, The Vail International Dance Festival and Romeo and Juliet.
For Romeo and Juliet, Sannino used the d:vote 4099 on cello and saxophone, the d:scre

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Sweden - Professional intercom solutions supplier Pliant Technologies has appointed Visono Media AB as its new distributor in Sweden.
Visono Media, a dealer and distributor of popular professional audio products, serves customers within a range of industries, including broadcasters, rental companies, theatres and sound production facilities for TV and film.
“We have more than 20 years of experience working with traditional intercoms and Pliant Technologies’ CrewCom is a groundbreaking intercom system with its advanced RF and networking capabilities,” says Jan Westling, co-founder of Visono Media AB. “CrewCom’s increased coverage and flexibility are main selling points for our customers. CrewCom is extremely intuitive and easy to use, which helps productions of any size adapt to changing user counts and personnel.”
Visono Media represents various pro

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UK - BECTU, the media and entertainment union, has launched a comprehensive set of standards for the live events industry to fight for better working conditions for its members in the sector.
The campaign comes as more than three quarters (76%) of BECTU members in the live events sector felt pay in the sector needed to be improved by setting minimum rates. A further two thirds (69%) of respondents named long hours as their biggest concern in their roles, followed by almost half (46%) reporting lack of crew welfare facilities and one in three (30%) expressing concern over health and safety.
Workers - often freelancers - who undertake contracts at entertainment events, festivals and conferences as lighting technicians, sound engineers and live events crew have reported widespread mistreatment including long hours, no breaks, bullying and harassment, says the union.

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Japan - French LED lighting manufacturer Ayrton has appointed PRG K.K. as its exclusive distributor for Japan.
A subsidiary of Production Resource Group (PRG), PRG K.K. is a leading production service provider for the entertainment industry. Its core markets include concert tours, theatre, TV, theme parks, commercial and education facilities, whilst among its clients are event organisers, promoters, and TV and theatre producers.
Jerad Garza, international sales for Ayrton, comments: “We are delighted to welcome PRG K.K. as our new partner in Japan. Their energy and approach to the market combined with their customer focus and Ayrton’s philosophy of ‘Smaller, Lighter and Brighter’ is a great fit, and we cannot wait to see positive things happening.”
PRG K.K.’s Yuji Tanaka adds: “We chose to become an Ayrton distributor because their renewed focus on

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UK - Callum Wachowski has joined Fiend Productions to provide a primary point of contact for rental enquires. Callum, who is also principal at Rugby-based dry hire and event production company Genius Bros, will bring his knowledge of lighting, rigging and video equipment and projects to the Fiend Productions team.
Jess Mathews, Fiend’s MD comments: “Callum has joined us at a time of investment and growth for the business. We are building on our stock of MA and Avolites control equipment, wide range of intelligent lighting fixtures and LED screen this year and Callum’s arrival will help us provide a knowledgeable and consistent contact for our customers.”
(Jim Evans)

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USA - Aaron Chisena has joined Apart Audio as director business development for North America.
Chisena brings more than 20 years of experience in product, sales and marketing management and has a vast knowledge of the consumer and commercial electronics, technology and the music industry. Based in Stamford, Connecticut, he will further develop and grow the Apart business together with distribution partners TMP Pro in the US and Trends in the Canadian market.
Apart Audio CEO Kris Vermuyten comments: “We are very happy to welcome Aaron to our team. With his strong and impressive background in the audio industry, he is extremely qualified and the perfect individual for our specialised fixed installation market. His proven track record of brand building and sales team building can only support our distribution partners in the further growth of the APART brand of quality

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The Netherlands - Established in 2000, YoungCapital is a recruitment agency for young people based in 35 locations, including two in Germany.
The company’s HQ on Hoofddorp has been recently completely updated and now features a Yamaha networked audio system.
The refurbishment project started in 2018 and included renovating and redecorating the spaces, whilst the audio system was also renewed. The system had to cover the reception area, restaurant, a hall/meeting space, an ‘urban’ environment (with moveable walls to create one large room, two medium rooms or four small ones), a gym, outside terrace and nine restroom areas.
YoungCapital’s IT project manager, Elwin van de Beek, contacted Ruben Haringsma of Soest-based installation company HiFi Choice to discuss the company’s needs. These included online streaming music sources, local inputs at various loc

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USA - In 2018, The Great Smoky Mountain Railroad and its winter attraction The Polar Express hoped to increase their production value and add additional safety lighting to the Bryson City train depot.
With the help of local lighting designer Chris Speer at SpeerC Consulting, Great Smoky Mountain Railroad sought out Bandit Lites to provide fixtures, show control and integration for their project. Chris and Bandit’s team worked together to retrofit existing street lamps with a RGBW LED source. The existing poles were mounted at 30’-50’ intervals, challenging the designers to find a LED that was wide and bright enough to provide even coverage for the entire train depot.
“Safety at the train depot was our number one priority,” says Andrew Fisher of Bandit Lites sales and installations. “Guests board and deboard at the Bryson City depot, and any dark spots could

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UK - When Circus 1903 - the Golden Age of Circus visited London’s Royal Festival Hall over the Christmas period, its performers and life-size puppet elephants were lit by lighting designer Paul Smith, using 26 VL2600 Wash fixtures from Vari-Lite.
Smith declared himself a fan of the new luminaire, impressed by its compact size, first-class framing and versatile zoom capabilities, among other fine performance features.
Supplied by Siyan, the VL2600 Washes delivered “the best-looking version of the show that we’ve had so far – certainly the one that I’m happiest with”, says Smith.
The compact LED fixtures delivered a number of immediate advantages. “By switching to the much more compact fixture we’ve gained extra floor space,” he says. “We’ve also replaced the heavier wash fixtures overhead, which is a great as it’s quite a weight-rest

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France - The Fête des Lumières in Lyon is a regular event in the French city’s calendar, taking place annually in early December.
Having first participated in the festival in 2017 with the show Guignol Sur La Colline presented on the facade of the Collège Jean Moulin, Portuguese creative studio and multimedia company OCUBO returned in 2018 to work on a projection on the façade of the Saint-Jean Cathedral. Pigments de Lumière was the recipient of the Trophée des Partenaires awarded each year by the festival’s partners to the best artistic showcase.
Inspired by a quote from author Goethe, who says "colours are actions from light”, Pigments de Lumière was conceived as an abstract tribute to and celebration of all the colours that make up light, represented one by one through an exciting succession of different effects.
Nuno Maya, C

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The Netherlands - Creative design practice Painting with Light was behind the delivery of the live performance show on the Panasonic stand at the 2019 Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) expo in Amsterdam.
Under the creative direction of Luc Peumans, for the third consecutive year, the Painting with Light team presented a specially-choreographed five-minute dance show, complete with bespoke video content and a special soundtrack for which they commissioned Frank de Wulf to direct - and sourced two dancers from the Véronique Lenaers school of ballet.
This showcased some of Panasonic’s latest technologies, including the new ET-D3LEF70 high resolution fisheye lenses for immersive projection applications and a new technical collaboration between Panasonic and AV Stumpfl, which has resulted in the development of their Pixera media server.
The fast-paced, colourful and

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UK - Epic Studios, a TV and entertainment centre in Norwich, has installed Martin Audio’s MLA PA system as part of a £250,000 investment programme.
The procurement of Martin Audio’s flagship system followed a push by management to establish the venue as the most technologically-advanced in East Anglia, and followed a shoot-out between many premier brands.
Technical manager, Matt Rabong, says: “After contacting Richard Van Nairn, Martin Audio brought in a system for a demo day, when I also tested many other systems. We ultimately chose MLA for its sound quality, particularly the punchy subs and its 'Hard Avoid' feature, which allows us to steer the sound away from our roof where the most leakage is, as well as our back wall which houses our production gallery.”
Their previous PA had also been a Martin Audio system, comprising Wavefront W8C and WSX subs as

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UK - WORK PRO’s versatile LightShark DMX-based hardware lighting console is making life on the road easier for PA and lighting company Black Cat Audio, which is currently deploying the console on the theatre show Someone Like You - The Adele Songbook.
With a hectic UK touring schedule to contend with, Black Cat Audio needed a small footprint lighting console that was quick to set up, easy to use and capable of dealing with a wide variety of venues - from 350-seater arts centres to large 2,000 capacity theatres.
“We looked at a number of alternatives but the LightShark console was the only one that ticked all the right boxes,” says Black Cat Audio’s technical director Adey Osbourne. “It has a lot of interesting features that we really like, such as a proper hardware unit with faders and built in software so that you don’t have to download anything to

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UK - Establishing themselves amongst today’s most in-demand deep house acts, Gorgon City have enjoyed considerable success in recent years with their signature blend of electronic, bass-driven anthems, including Ready For Your Love and Real Life.
Based around North London production duo Kye ‘Foamo’ Gibbon and Matt ‘RackNRuin’ Robson-Scott, the extended live Gorgon City experience gained many more new fans when they hit the highway in January and February for a short tour of the UK and Ireland, with lighting designer Andy Emmerson counting on Entec for his essential lighting package.
After relying on a variety of rental sources for a recent American trek, the act turned to Entec to furnish their Escape tour which began at Newcastle’s O2 Academy, continuing in Manchester, Nottingham, Bristol, Dublin and peaking at the 3,000-capacity Printworks e
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