UK - The National Eisteddfod of Wales takes place annually during the first week in August at a different location. This year’s renewal took place in Cardiff Bay where more than 160,000 people attended the event, enjoying a richly diverse programme centred on the arts.
Featuring music and literary competitions, lectures, meetings, gigs, trade stands and stalls, drama productions, street theatre and gastronomy, the National Eisteddfod has it all. In its customary format, the event is located on a single field site, with adjacent camping but this year, owing to its urban location, the organisers chose a number of venues around the Cardiff Bay area in which to host its constituent parts, with campsites situated in a park location around four miles away.
Cardiff-based eve

Russia - Ayrton was showcased at the recent Prolight+Sound NAMM Russia 2018 in an interactive lightshow created by its commercial partner, TDS-Pro.
TDS-Pro specialises in stage design and technical production of TV projects, concerts and major sporting events. Its creative designers use Ayrton lighting fixtures in their designs. This was reflected in the lightshow which used the latest technologies to combine artists, Ayrton lighting fixtures, video, robots and augmented reality into a dramatic storyline.
In it, a robot, composed of an LED screen and Ayrton MagicBlade-R fixtures located on a robotic arm, lay embedded in an LED wall and DreamPanel-Twin units where it remained hidden from view. During the show, the lighting fixtures appear to start to work incorrectly as if struck by a virus. The engineer from TDS-Pro tries to solve the problem and starts to load the ant

UK - Limelight Presentation Systems has ended a long search for a mid-sized loudspeaker array by investing in Martin Audio’s MLA Compact.
The delivery of 24 MLA Compact elements and 13 MLX subwoofers ended a journey that had begun many years earlier, when Martin Audio first revealed the MLA platform to audio professionals at Wembley Arena back in March 2012. Having been a Martin Audio house for 10 years Limelight head of audio, Dave Plant had reviewed all the premier brands before deciding that the time was right to invest in MLA Compact.
“We service an eclectic mix of events and we’ve been looking at MLA Compact ever since it came out with a view to replacing the LCs, but because of the varied nature of our work - providing coverage for 10,000 people at a festival one moment and then doing a corporate show for 500 the next - we thought long and hard.
“S
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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

UK - Edinburgh theatre and live event production company Blue Parrot has recently enhanced its rental inventory with the purchase of an MDG Ice Fog Compack HP low fog generator and an MDG ATMe haze generator. Blue Parrot provides full production services and dry hire of lighting, sound, video, staging, rigging and power distribution, which it has done for more than 18 years.
The Blue Parrot team was actively looking for alternative low fog and haze generators which would give a better output with less noise and the durability to withstand the high demands of life in a rental house. “We made a conscious decision to invest in MDG because the demand for the brand in Scotland is growing fast,” says Blue Parrot MD, Jonnie Clough. “We already have low fog and haze generators from other manufacturers but were not really satisfied with the effect they produced and found them v

Germany - On 20 July, the Parookaville music festival in Weeze opened its doors for the fourth year for three days of electronic and house music delivered by some of the biggest DJs of the genre such as David Guetta, Zedd, Armin van Buuren, and Hardwell. With 80,000 in attendance, Parookaville again sold out to retain its status as the country’s largest EDM festival.
The main stage with its spectacular set and attention to detail was among the largest festival stages in Europe at over 200m wide. Enhancing the set-up and expanding the visual impact even further were 160 Proteus Hybrid moving heads, Elation’s full-featured IP65 luminaire, which lined the downstage edge with more fixtures spread across the setup.
On site as general technical service provider was POOLgroup and as the skies tend to open up at Parookaville POOLgroup lighting designer Robert Sommer put h

USA - Media solutions and control specialist ArKaos will be at the LDI expo in Las Vegas next week on the stand of US distributor Elation Professional (# 931) showing their latest range of products, including MediaMaster, ArKaos video servers, GrandVJ and LEDMaster.
In a dedicated demonstration room at the Las Vegas convention Centre, the ArKaos team will be presenting two free training workshops on Friday, 19 October, and Saturday, 20 October.
The Friday session is taking place from 1pm-4pm local time. Topics covered will include ArKaos’s flexible range of media servers; an overview of the MediaMaster software; the highlights and uses of the KlingNet protocol and Kling-force interface and an overview of the new ArKaos An-Ki remote control and digital content management solution.
On Saturday, the workshop are running 9am-1pm and will focus on the MediaMaster wo

USA - Influential New York music venue My Father’s Place has been equipped with a Danley Sound Labs sound reinforcement system as it reopened in the Roslyn Hotel ballroom on Long Island.
The venue played a critical role in the New York music scene of the 1970s and 1980s, helping to launch the careers of scores of musicians including Tom Petty, Tom Waits, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Hall & Oats, 38 Special, Aerosmith, Billy Joel, Meat Loaf, John Prine, Charlie Daniels, Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Ray Vaughn, The Runaways, The Ramones, Blondie, Blue Öyster Cult, Rush, Iggy and The Stooges, Lou Reed, The Talking Heads, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Police and Emmylou Harris.
The new My Father’s Place is set up as a 200-seat supper club, a twist that harkens back to an era that massively predates the original venue and gives it a new sheen. The original owner, Michael

Europe - Green Hippo has announced the appointment of Juha Kiuru as international sales manager. Kiuru, who has been working in the lighting and video sector since 2000, will represent Green Hippo throughout northern European territories, including his native Finland.
As well as extensive industry experience, Kiuru also brings proficiency with various languages, including fluent written and spoken English.
On his appointment, he comments: “I am really pleased to join Green Hippo. I have always been thoroughly impressed with its range of award-winning media servers, and I look forward to helping the company continue its success all over northern Europe.”
James Roth, head of sales and marketing at Green Hippo, adds: “It is a pleasure to welcome Juha to the team. This is an exciting time to join Green Hippo and we fully expect Juha’s experience and skills to

USA - Orlando-based Professional Wireless Systems has announced the addition of the 1RU Alpha Quad-4 and 2RU Alpha Quad-8 to the Alpha Series, which was introduced earlier this year. The new units will make their industry debut at the AES show in New York City this month.
The Alpha Quad-4 and Quad-8 are designed for use with multiple Shure Axient AD4Q receivers in Quadversity mode. The units provide four individual unity-gain signals (A, B, C, D) to up to four quad receivers, with RF filtering at 470-616 MHz Power is supplied to the units with either the main or the Aux inputs or used at the same time for redundant power.
“The Alpha Quad distros serve as the ‘head end’ for the receive antenna system,” explains Professional Wireless production manager Justin Van Winkle. “Four antennas can be connected to the rear-panel input connections. The RF signals are the

Europe - Wireless technology provider LumenRadio has released an update of their embedded operating system for wireless connectivity - MiraOS. One of the main features is the improved ultra-low energy consumption for battery operated solutions where they have “broken new ground”.
MiraOS enables products to become smart and connected through large-scale wireless mesh networks. With LumenRadio’s technologies and radio development expertise, product manufacturers can get an ultra-reliable and Future-Proof wireless solution.
In addition to decreased energy consumption, the main new features in the MiraOS v2.1 are BLE beacon support, high-precision time-stamping of data and the Mix&Match formation technology.
At LumenRadio, low energy meshing mode has been a dedicated focus for their research and development department and their goal has been to reach the

Italy - “Life takes interesting turns,” says Andrea Muzzin at the close of the Empoli Beat Festival. In 2002, Muzzin was an avid fan of Sum41. “I played their album Does This Look Infected? over and over again,” says the video and lighting technician at Fumasoli Audio & Light Rental. Fast forward 16 years, and Muzzin finds himself involved in supporting the Juno Award-winning band as they made an encore appearance at this three-day celebration of music and art in a Tuscan village outside Florence.
Muzzin wasn’t the only one feeling good vibes during the Empoli Beat Festival. Fans packed leafy Serravalle Park outside the city for the festival, which featured acts like Motta, Cosmo and Canova. Supporting Sum41 and the other artists on the main stage was a rig designed by Marco Difebo that was anchored by a collection of Chauvet Professional Maverick fixtur

USA - At the Sight & Sound Theatres in Branson, Missouri and Strasburg, Pennsylvania, you’re invited to experience an action-packed musical stage adventure that takes you on “a miraculous journey alongside the most famous person to ever walk the earth and the everyday people whose lives he changed forever”. This is the story of Jesus, brought to life as a stage production in two separate venues.
The productions involve A 45-member cast, a zoo’s worth of live animals and more, plus one of the largest LED screens ever used in theatrical production (100’ x 30’), and a Clair Brothers surround sound extravaganza including C8 line arrays, CS218 cardioid subwoofer arrays and a growing collection of monitors.
Gary Parke, audio integrator at Sight & Sound, explains: “The venues are almost the same except for one big difference. The control rooms at Strasbu

South Korea - IGodswill Church in Seoul has recently invested in an Allen & Heath dLive digital mixing system and ME personal monitoring system for its Sunday services and weekly festival events.
With no permanent building, worshippers travel to a local high school auditorium for the church’s Sunday service. The church holds three services each weekend, which are split based on musical styles; the first service features classical performances, while the second delivers 80’s pop and the third, rock. As such, the church required a versatile and easy to set up audio solution that delivered high quality sound for a wide variety of material.
Supplied by Sama Sound, the set-up includes a dLive S7000 at FOH, accompanied by a DX32 expander, Dante card and DM48 MixRack (mounted on stage). Taechan Moon (sound engineer at the church), comments: “dLive's user interface a

UK - Filmed live on location within a West London high rise apartment block, the new reality show pits a mix of characters against each other in a bid to win a popularity contest whilst interacting exclusively through a specially designed, voice-activated social media platform known as The Circle.
Working with lighting designer James Tinsley, electrician Adam Mitchell and their team, Aurora has provided an array of equipment and infrastructure to assist in building the show’s look, created by production designer, Sally Lock.
The installation features a range of LED and practical fixtures used extensively throughout the room interiors. With over 100 fixed rig cameras in place, the set-up has been carefully designed to be functional whilst remaining unobtrusive to both the contestants and viewers alike. The team’s mix of LED, festoon and practical fixtures add

UK - Manchester-based tube UK is holding expanded sessions on Yamaha’s Rivage PM7 digital mixing system on 15 October (Monday) at the city’s Albert Hall.
The sessions are being run in conjunction with Yamaha Commercial Audio and will be an engineering focussed, hands-on introduction to both the Rivage PM7 and PM10 digital mixing systems.
Sessions will begin with an introduction to the key features of the Rivage range by Yamaha’s technical staff, after which both systems will be setup in two areas with virtual soundcheck media, to simulate mixing a live show.
The sessions are being held at 2pm, 4pm and 6pm and are strictly on an RSVP, first-come first-served basis. Contact PM7@tubeuk.com to confirm your preferred time slot.
(Jim Evans)

USA - Revelation Productions, a Massachusetts-based corporate A/V and installed sound production house, opened their doors 22 years ago with Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW) loudspeakers as their mainstay product. Recently the company reinvested in EAW with the acquisition of 20 Radius RSX208L loudspeakers, which are bringing the same value and sound quality to their customers as their first EAW system did years ago.
“We were very excited to add Radius systems to our inventory - they have terrific features and offer a tremendous value to our customers, which is very important to us,” explains Anthony D’ Elia, president and executive producer for Revelation Productions. “We do a lot of work up and down the east coast as well as with most of the higher education organizations in our area. The RADIUS system is ideal for so many of these applications.”
In addition

USA - Dead & Company’s 2018 tour kicked off in Mansfield, Massachusetts at the Xfinity Centre and returned for a two-night stand at venues such as Citi Field in New York; Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wisconsin; Shoreline Amphitheatre in San Francisco, California; and Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado, while also adding new venues, including Los Angeles’ historic Dodger Stadium and Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon, to the tour.
Striking lighting was designed by show / visuals director Chris Ragan of Raygun Design who has worked with Dead & Company since the project started in 2015.
Dead & Company was formed when the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann and Bob Weir joined forces with artist and musician John Mayer, Allman Brothers’ bassist Oteil Burbridge, and Fare Thee Well and RatDog keyboardist Jeff Chimenti.
On the l

Mexico - With its long sandy beaches, tropical climate, luxurious resort hotels and legendary nightlife, Cancún attracts millions of tourists each year. Traveling from across the US, as well as many other countries around the world, visitors flock to the famous Mexican city for relaxed days on the beach and wild nights of partying.
Standing out amongst the city’s myriad of bars and clubs, The City Cancún is a huge venue with a capacity of 7,000. This vast multi-level club boasts an awe-inspiring lightshow which is anchored by a major installation of 130 ADJ Vizi Beam 5RX moving heads.
Located in the heart of Cancun’s ‘hotel zone’, The City opened in 2004 and is now well-established as one of the resort’s most popular nightclubs. For the last eight years it has been managed by Grupo AntroMex, Mexico’s largest nightlife entertainment company which operates

World - Yamaha and Audinate are teaming up to present a free webinar entitled Live Multi-track Recording Made Easy: The Power of the Dante-Yamaha Connection.
Taking place on 24 October (Monday), the webinar will be moderated by Tom Kenny (content director, ProSound News) and will feature Andy Cooper (manager, Pro Audio Application Engineering, Yamaha R&D Centre) and Kieran Walsh (Audinate director of application engineering, EMEA) and Colin Sheen, a studio owner, recording engineer, composer and musician with many years’ experience of digital audio systems and use of Yamaha equipment with Dante.
It will help participants learn how to make successful multi-track recordings and virtual soundchecks using Dante audio networking and Yamaha professional audio products, including the TF, QL and CL series digital mixing consoles, as well as the Rivage PM7 a

UK - Ben Virgo has joined Chauvet as European senior product specialist for the company’s lighting products. Virgo brings an extensive technological background to his new position having previously served as head of technology at Factory Settings Ltd., where he was tasked with integrating technology into large-scale production projects. He was also the European technical manager at ENTTEC lighting controls.
Albert Chauvet, CEO of Chauvet, comments: “We’re excited to welcome Ben to our team. The growth of our company has been fuelled by the high quality of our products and service. In light of Ben’s experience, ability and passion for excellence, we’re confident he’ll fit right into the Chauvet culture and make valuable contributions to our efforts.”
Michael Brooksbank, general manager of Chauvet Europe, adds: “Ben is a great addition to our team. His t

USA - For post-hardcore music fans, the summer of 2018 was something special New York-based Quicksand and Glassjaw, teamed up on a 20-date, co-headlining tour across the U.S.
JDI Productions, Inc. of Rhode Island served as lighting vendor for Quicksand with an Elation Professional lighting rig of DARTZ 360 LED moving heads, ACL 360 Bar LED battens and Cuepix Blinder WW2 keeping colourful pace with the band’s creatively intense sound.
JDI handled lighting design and programming for the outing with JDI’s Megan Alksninis on board as lighting director/operator. “Quicksand knows how to command the stage and the lighting had to follow,” Alksninis comments. “Their diverse music displays a lot of layers and the design was free flowing and fluid. Smooth color changes and sweeping gobos were a huge part of the design.”
Alksninis describes the lighting setup a

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