USA - Sensaphonics recently held a Gold Circle Seminar to train audiologists in meeting the specialised needs of artists, sound engineers, and other music professionals. The two-day seminar features personal instruction from Sensaphonics president, Dr. Michael Santucci, and audio engineering consultant Joe ‘Sound Guy’ Tessone. Four audiologists gained Gold Circle certification through a series of classroom modules and a hands-on demo session with a live band using in-ear monitors for the first time.
Topics included advanced hearing loss prevention techniques, concert sound system basics, monitoring technology overview, product information, and backstage etiquette, all with a focus on how the music industry differs from other work environments. Classroom instruction is held

Canada - Adamson Systems Engineering hosted the largest-ever gathering of its global network at its Canadian head office and manufacturing facility in Port Perry, at the end of September.
Over 120 partners from around the world took part in two full days of programming, including previews of upcoming products, innovations, and collaborations, all with the goal of better supporting end-users with world-class training and service.
“We’ve welcomed a significant number of new partners to the Adamson global network over the past few years amidst a period of strong year-over-year growth,” says James Oliver, Adamson’s director of sales and marketing. “We’re very proud of the way our international team has supported these partners to date, but recognised an opportunity to bring everyone together, offer a preview of upcoming product releases, and leverage ideas and

Spain - K-array has appointed Media-Sys as its exclusive distributor in Spain.
Established in 1991, Media-Sys has evolved from a standard distribution channel to a full-service company providing project design, installation setup, marketing and sales support and post-sales services on every project.
“Our main product focus is based on professional audio brands with outstanding quality and this commitment always pushes us to find new solutions for our customers,” comments Josep M. Foguet, CEO Media-Sys. “K-array gives a real answer to this focus and represents a new approach to installation thanks to its unique product design."
(Jim Evans)
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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

Europe - Lighting and production designer Mitchell Schellenger has been using an Elation lighting rig to put a mark on the Imagine Dragons worldwide Evolve tour throughout 2018. Schellenger, who joined the tour early in 2018 in time for the first European leg, has been lighting several legs of the tour using Platinum Beam 5R Extreme moving heads, ZW19 LED wash lights, and Protron 3K Color strobes supplied by Christie Lites.
Inspired by artist Beeple’s colourful Evolve album art, Schellenger’s setup features eight angled video screens of varying sizes, five high res upstage and three blow-through screens on the floor. Lined vertically along the sides of the upstage video screens, on finger trusses, on wings and on a free-standing B-stage used for an acoustic set are Platinum Beam 5R Extremes, which Schellenger calls the workhorse of the gear. “They are a g

Europe - Walking with Dinosaurs - The Arena Spectacular (read report in LSi November) is a $20m production based on the award-winning TV programme of the same name.
The show benefits from major improvements to animatronics, which have enabled the life-like dinosaurs to 'eat' and 'breathe' - and live arena experience has already been seen by over nine million people in more than 250 cities globally. 
Experience and expert technical knowledge has been essential in executing the brief, and South Wales-based Sonalyst was called upon to deliver. The audio, lighting, BlackTrax system and comms for the production were all provided by Sonalyst.
Project manager George Pakenham explains: “Being a

China - NeuroTech Asia has become the first owner of the Prolyte Space Roof System in the Asia Pacific region.
The company, which provides AV and staging services in China and throughout the Asia-Pacific region, first contracted with Prolyte in early 2018 to purchase staging systems from its Mammoth ground support system. To meet the increased demand for staging equipment, NeuroTech recently purchased Prolyte’s Space Roof system.
The roof can be suspended from standard Prolyte CT towers and can be built up to 37 x 22 meters in size, offered a loading capacity of 30t UDL + 2x 4T PA which was easily installed, which helps meet the needs of touring artists. With reducing the stage opening (standard 31m), the loading capacity can be easily increased up to 50t. The space roof structure can also be easily adapted in size every 2.072m in width and depth. With maintaining

USA - The pop-up Museum of Ice Cream (MOIC) continues its celebrated tour across the nation, with locations such as Miami, San Francisco and Los Angeles all getting a glimpse at this special attraction.
Production company Envizion provided the lighting for the travelling museum, with their lighting designer Will Chandler choosing the impression X4 atom as one of the key fixtures for the lighting of the exhibit.
“With the locations only being temporary, and with the exhibits inside each one continually changing, it's been important to have fixtures on hand that are adaptable,” Chandler said. And the X4 atom is precisely that; with its small size and powerful capabilities the fixture lends itself perfectly to this format.
One of the key aspects behind the choice of the X4 atom was the importance of the museum being camera friendly. Chandler made good use of the

Columbia - DirectOut has expanded its worldwide business network with the appointment of VCR as its sole distributor for the Colombia market.
Based in Bogota, VCR will handle distribution of the full DirectOut product portfolio and provide technical and sales support.
Hernan Suescun, VCR’s CEO comments: “As a company, we aim to offer our clients the most advanced technologies available to the AV world, especially now that new IP technologies are rapidly developing. DirectOut has the best solutions in terms of audio networking, routing and conversion along with a well-known quality and reliability.”
Lorenzo Sassi, business developer at DirectOut, adds: “A few months after we met with VCR for the first time it was quite clear to us that both companies had a common interest in developing their business together. VCR not only has skills and a deep knowledge o

Indonesia - The 2018 Asian Games Opening Ceremony, staged in Jakarta’s Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) Main Stadium, saw LD Yves Aucoin to deliver an impressive lighting design.
The OC of Asia’s largest sporting event featured a general cast of around 4000, produced by Scott Givens and Libby Hyland working with Indonesian creative director Wishnutama Kusubandio. Staging direction was by Michael Pena working with Indonesian choreographers Denny Malik and Eko Supriyanto, and the breathtakingly visual extravaganza was produced by live event specialists FiveCurrents.
Montreal based LD Aucoin specified 270 x Robe BMFLs to be a major part of the lighting rig.
“It was BMFLs or BMFLs,” he says. “They were the only fixture option for a selection of key positions around the venue.”
These high-powered fixtures once again proved their ruggedness and reliability as

Sweden - Each year in October, the Swedish town of Alingsås near Gothenburg turns into a fun lighting event, attracting more than 80,000 visitors from around the world. For this year’s Lights in Alingsås, six groups of talented lighting and electrical students created beautiful light installations under the professional guidance from seven established lighting designers using over 50 fixtures from SGM Light.
The almost 400-year-old Swedish town Alingsås started off mainly as an iron trade city, which later turned into a city for the textile industry.
In the city river, the manufacturers would wash out the colour of the textiles, giving the name for the first site for this year’s Lights in Alingsås, Färgeribron (Dyers’ bridge). Led by Nielsen and van der Velden, this team focused on the visible energy from the water as well as the communa

UK - Adlib first supplied audio kit for American singer and actress Janelle Monáe in 2008. A decade later, Monáe was back in the UK and Europe for a short, high-impact leg of her Dirty Computerworld tour, and once again Adlib was involved in supplying the technical production elements - sound, lighting and video - to her production team led by tour manager Reneeka Rae and production manager Jeff Cochran.
Adlib account handler Phil Kielty commented, “Janelle is one of the most energised and innovative artists of the moment and it was our pleasure to work with her and her crew again.”
In keeping with the spirit of inclusion, the FOH creative team was all female with sound engineer Amanda Davies, video director Erica Hayes and lighting designer Lauren Sega leading the way.
The equipment package was effectively a dry hire, however Adlib sent engineers t

Canada - Lighting designer Karl Gaudreau has added a large complement of Claypaky fixtures to the lighting at Bell Centre for the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens. Gaudreau selected Claypaky SharBar advanced moving LED bars, Axcor Profile 900 LED spots and Axcor Beam 300s for the arena.
Montreal’s Bell Centre is consistently one of the busiest arenas in the world. It is the largest arena capacity to regularly host an NHL team, the Montreal Canadiens who make their home at the downtown venue.
“I wanted to increase the fan experience and be able to create different lighting effects during the games as well as for rock ’n roll shows,” says Gaudreau. “The design is mostly based on audience lighting that delivers a true 360º experience.”
The lighting designer notes that when adding new lights to the arena, “the idea was to be fully green by using only LED fix

Australia - Built in the early 1970s, the University of Newcastle’s Great Hall, in the Australian state of New South Wales, is a significant landmark building on the University’s Callaghan campus, located in the western suburbs of Newcastle.
The building is multi-functional and used by the university and Newcastle community for a wide variety of functions ranging from formal University graduations, public performances, sit down dinners, open days, community events as well as teaching and learning activities.
The new audio-visual Infrastructure upgrade was focused around providing a significant improvement in audio and video quality and reliability within the Great Hall. The end-result, based around a Martin Audio WPM PA, achieved that and more. It is flexible, scalable and supports the University’s teaching, learning and community outreach activities.
The

UK - NEC Group Arenas has taken two electrical apprentices on a three-year placement with the Group’s Arenas ElectriX team.
Liam Dyde, 21, and Mohammed Waseem, 28, will receive mentoring as they bid to complete their NVQ Level 3 in electrics.
Throughout their apprenticeship, Dyde and Waseem will gain theoretical and practical knowledge and be involved in testing, inspection and delivery of the electrical supplies. One day per week in term time will also be spent at Solihull College & University Centre for additional practical and theory lessons.
NEC Group Arenas chief electrician and mentor Peter Hammond comments: “There is a noticeable skills gap in the arenas electrical industry, something that we too have noticed with our in-house team. As skilled individuals retire, there’s be a decline in numbers of those able to step into their positions. With d

Argentina/USA - Over $10m worth of equipment has been seized from a black market organisation in Buenos Aires following a two-year undercover operation.
The equipment was retrieved on 13 September in a joint operation between Argentinian police forces, the NYPD major crimes squad, the FBI and the US embassy. The authorities said 10 raids had been carried out, with the kit believed to have been stolen from the USA and rented out to film and TV production companies on the black market in Argentina.
ESTA’s Production Equipment Rental Group (PERG) worked closely with the police to coordinate the identification of the recovered items via its searchable online database for missing equipment, Rental Guard.
Martin Pastor, NYPD major case squad detective, comments: “We have recovered over $10m in stolen equipment thanks to Rental Guard. I urge anyone who suffers a th

USA - Once counted among the South’s leading cinemas, the Miller Theatre in Augusta had sat boarded up and empty for over thirty years, until being reborn as a community performing arts centre in January with a sold-out gala featuring Tony Award-winner Sutton Foster performing with the Augusta Symphony.
The theatre had undergone a $23m makeover. To serve the community that saved it, the theatre features a diverse mix of shows that offers ballet one week, and kick boxing the next, with shows by stars like Chris Isaak and George Thorogood thrown in for good measure. Helping the theatre support this eclectic mix of talent is a robust new lighting rig anchored by Chauvet Professional Rogue and Ovation fixtures.
“I’ve been a big fan of Chauvet fixtures ever since I learned about the line from my friend John Berrett, who I respect a great deal as a lighting designer,

USA - Last year, LiteGear designated their LiteMat+ fixture to participate in the Behind the Scenes Pledge-a-Product Programme which resulted in a generous donation of $7,500. This year, owners Al DeMayo and Mike Bauman decided to take their support to the next level and designated sales of all LiteMat fixtures to benefit the charity.
Recently, they presented a cheque for $15,000 to members of the Behind the Scenes Board of Directors, representing an incredible commitment by the company, its employees and its customers to care for their colleagues who are seriously ill or injured.
On presenting the cheque, LiteGear CEO, Al DeMayo, states: “With decades of experience working in the business, my partner Mike and I have worked with lots of great filmmakers. We are happy to know the Behind the Scenes charity is behind-the-technicians should they need it.”
Lori R

The Netherlands - Story Event Engineering recently deployed multiple Harman Professional Solutions audio systems at Emporium Festival, including JBL VTX A12 tour sound solutions.
Founded in 2005 by Dutch promoter Matrixx Events, Emporium Festival is an annual dance music festival held near the city of Wijchen in Berendonck Park. This year, 30,000 dance music fans came together to enjoy a robust lineup of DJs and performers across nine stages.
Story Event Engineering equipped the entire festival with end-to-end Harman live sound reinforcement systems, including JBL VTX Series line arrays, Crown I-Tech HD Series amplifiers and Soundcraft Vi Series consoles.
“We’ve been providing sound for Emporium Festival for over 10 years, and every year our company grows along with it,” said Paul Lehmann, sales representative & system engineer, Story Event Engineering.

USA - For residents of the historic Buckeye-Shaker neighbourhood, the concerts that take place on the sprawling grounds of St. Luke’s Manor offer more than a chance to enjoy good music, they also serve as a celebration of their community’s rebirth.
The impressive building that provides an emblematic backdrop to the concert series had stood empty and neglected for 14 years after the hospital that originally occupied it closed its doors in 1999. When the five-story structure reopened after extensive renovations in 2013 as a multi-use facility, it served as a catalyst for a neighbourhood-wide renaissance.
Designer Brent Schmidt of B Productions reflected this hopeful spirit and accented St. Luke’s Manor’s memorable architectural features, when he illuminated the building in an array of colours. Helping him in this endeavour were 24 Freedom Par Quad-4 IP and six I

UK - Aurora Lighting supported lighting designer Gurdip Mahal and gaffer James Tinsley for the 2018 Stand Up to Cancer live show.
Hosted by Alan Carr, Maya Jama and Adam Hills in front of an audience at Central Methodist Hall, Westminster, the evening featured appearances from John Legend, Liam Gallagher, Little Mix, Michael Bublé and James Corden taking part in celebrity versions of some of Channel 4’s most popular shows to help build awareness of the fight against cancer.
To help set the stage for the show, Aurora provided a mix of automated fixtures, tungsten and LED which the crew used to great effect, creating a stylish contemporary look that contrasted perfectly against the grandiose interior of the venue.
Martin MAC Auras delivered intense colour washes to the performance areas, matched with ProLights Smartbat and SGM P5 LED uplighters plus GLP X4 Bar20

UK - Dry hire and production company Fiend Productions provided a Sixty82 trussing system for the Progress Wrestling 2018 shows at London's historic Alexandra Palace and SSE Arena Wembley.
Progress Wrestling, a British professional wrestling promotion, ran its first show in 2012 at The Garage in Islington. Since then it has grown t into major venues in the UK, including Ally Pally and the Wembley Arena.
Jess Matthews, managing director of Fiend Productions, approached A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) to invest in high load trussing for the shows at Ally Pally. After being provided with a range of options by Steven Farnsworth in UK sales at AC-ET, Matthews decided on Sixty82.
He comments: “The quality of the welds and construction of the Sixty82 truss is very noticeable, and the high load capacity allows us to be a lot more creative.”
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