UK - Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds were on the road for much of 2017, performing in world-renowned theatres and major arenas across Australia, North America, mainland Europe, and the U.K. When it came to the large-scale venues like Manchester Arena and London’s O2 Arena, it was an E-Series audio system from Adamson Systems Engineering amplifying the band’s haunting melodies and weighty words for a notoriously dedicated fan base.
“Both the E15s and S10s are sounding beautiful,” FOH engineer Matt Crosbie said amidst the run. “Even from when we first tried them in Australia, it was clear we had the right system, and with the new V4 preset, the mids and highs are pretty close to perfect.”
Considering the wide range of venues comprising the tour, the system was des

UK - Powersoft Quattrocanali amplifiers are providing the beating heart of a new entertainment experience in the UK.
Created by the award-winning producers behind the BBC series and arena show Walking With Dinosaurs, the Dinosaurs In The Wild production (read a detailed report in LSi September 2017) uses the latest in AV and animatronic technology to generate a realistic, interactive walk-through back to the Late Cretaceous period.
Central to the successful creation of TimeBase 67 (built by Chronotex Enterprises) is the sound and lighting design along with the animatronics and the latest in 3D AV technology. The accent is on authenticity and accuracy.
There are three elements to this mix of t

Denmark - The Live Company AS showcase event co-hosted with Chroma-Q enabled rental production clients to experience the multi award-winning Color Force II LED cyc, wash & effects light.
Leading lighting designers and specifiers from all sectors were invited to Tivoli in Copenhagen, one of Denmark's most prestigious entertainment resorts. Delegates got hands-on with Color Force II, followed by dinner and a show, where they were able to see it in action during a performance of The 35th Crazy Christmas Cabaret Show - Planet Rump - The Farce Awakens.
Freelance lighting designer Mark P Jones, who attended the event commented: "Having a history of using and specifying Chroma-Q products, it's great to see that Color Force II builds on the reputation of the original fixture - the output, colour range and stability on camera make them a great lighting tool."
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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

Italy - Florence’s Nextech festival chalked up a sold-out 12th edition in December at the city’s Fortezza da Basso under the techno banner, with 3,000 fans flocking to see and hear the man many of them call the Techno King, Chris Liebing, ably preceded by a blistering set by up and coming local DJ Marco Effe.
Frankfurt-based, but constantly globetrotting on the international club and festival circuit, Liebing is a techno pioneer, DJ, producer, podcast and radio host, as well as being the driving force behind his CLR label.
One of the first DJs to use the new possibilities offered by the digitalization of music in an original creative manner, Liebing is constantly on the search for new methods of creative expression. These include real-time manipulation of individual tracks and sounds in his DJ sets, so the sonic quality of the sound systems he uses plays a fundamen

South Africa - The Acts Christian Church in Midrand has invested in two Robe Spiiders that will work alongside their current Robe rig.
When it comes to mission work, Acts Church reaches out to people with Acts of Love, whether it’s providing toilets to a needy community, setting up a library, giving food to the homeless or preparing gifts for senior citizens and children over the Christmas period.
With a North and South Campus to accommodate the increasing congregation which is now just short of 6 000 people, the church has five Sunday services (three at North campus and two at South Campus with an additional evening service held at the North Campus once a month) and hosts various events from children’s productions to conferences that cover topics such as Business Excellence, Bible studies or fasting periods. The auditorium has also doubled up as a venue to assist

Europe - The current tour by Jamiroquai, which started last spring with a run of festival appearances and a short stretch round Japan, is now touring Europe in earnest with a full production.
From the out-set, their FOH engineer Rick Pope has been using Yamaha’s new flagship mixing console, the PM10. “We have looked after Rick and Jamiroquai for many years now,” said client manager Dave Compton at Britannia Row. “Although investing in a new top end console was not in our cap’ex plan at the time it was at Clair Global. They already carry a large inventory of Yamaha consoles and were more than willing to make the investment to support this tour.”
For Clair Global, Pope’s experiences have proved a useful test-bed. With the tour now in Europe, Britannia Row are also taking a long hard look at the desk. Pope, who has mixed Jamiroquai for many years, explains

Indonesia - Finn's Beach Club in Bali recently relocated to a new building on the famous Berawa surf beach and has installed a new Yamaha audio system.
The environmentally-friendly bamboo structure allows every guest to have a guaranteed sunset view accompanied by music from the club’s resident DJs. The soundtrack is enhanced by a major Yamaha audio installation, designed and installed by David Soewondo of Surabaya-based DMP Musik.
A complex, multi-zone system was needed because the club features six indoor bars, a restaurant, spa, boutique, changing rooms, DJ booth/stage, two swimming pools, a pool bar and numerous outdoor hammocks and single/double day beds.
“The client needed a system that could distribute sound throughout the venue, however the different zones have different volume settings, depending on how each area is used,” says David. “Some of t

UK - Based on the world renowned 1950 novel by Patricia Highsmith, Strangers On A Train is a spine-chilling tale that tells the story of a fateful encounter between two men in the dining carriage of a train crossing America.
Originally seen in the West End, the production is now being revived and is touring across the UK. Starring television favourites Christopher Harper, John Middleton and Hannah Tointon, it is adapted by Craig Warner and directed by Anthony Banks. As a leading supplier to touring productions, White Light is providing the lighting equipment.
Strangers On A Train sees the creative team from last year’s production of Gaslight reunite, which WL also supplied. The lighting designer for both is Howard Hudson, who says: “The set for Strangers On A Train is built on two levels and relies on a lot of projection to suggest the

USA - Located in New Middleton, Ohio, Hitch-Hiker Mfg. leads the way in design innovations for the mobile food concession industry. When approached by Chicken Charlie’s in San Diego, California, they were asked to help create a LED video display for the new FryBQ mobile concession stand.
Needing a solution that could overcome the challenges associated with an outdoor, traveling environment, they called upon Nashville-based PixelFLEX who provided a completely IP65-rated FLEXStorm 6mm LED video system.
“I’ve been in the restaurant business for 34 years and we’ve had the mobile concession stand for 23 years now,” began Charlie Boghosian, Chicken Charlie’s owner. “We have a season every year that last about 5 months where we travel across Southern California, and I first put LED video on a stand about 10 years ago.
“This year, as we were building thi

UK - Global brand experience agency Jack Morton Worldwide once again organised London’s New Year’s Eve firework display – an event which it has produced for 14 consecutive years. Contributing to this year’s event was a ChamSys MagicQ MQ500 Stadium console, which was used by lighting programmer Paul Cook to control the 18-universe lightshow that supported the firework display.
The display, which took place over the River Thames and the Coca-Cola London Eye, is a global showcase for the city, reflecting its dynamism, creativity and openness. The show was seen by millions of people on BBC One and live by over 100,000 people in viewing areas on the banks of the River Thames.
Synchronised and triggered by GPS to Big Ben’s chimes, the 12-minute show lit up the River Thames with 2,000 lighting cues and 12,000 fireworks producing 50,000 projectiles. The FOH station

USA - Allied Esports announced the grand opening date and a major partnership for Esports Arena Las Vegas, and the first stop for its new mobile arena, Esports Arena Drive.
Esports Arena Las Vegas, The Strip’s first dedicated esports arena, will open at Luxor Hotel and Casino on 22 March with a series of events, including an invitation-only, multi-day, live-streamed tournament.
“Esports Arena Las Vegas is the cornerstone of our property, brand and content development and will allow us to engage esports communities, brands and stakeholders like never before,” said Jud Hannigan, CEO of Allied Esports. “With Las Vegas rapidly becoming a hub for esports, Esports Arena Las Vegas at Luxor will be the city’s home for competitive gaming and interactive entertainment.”
Allied Esports also announced an exclusive partnership with Harman Professional Solutions,

USA - Dreamforce, Salesforce's tech conference that recently drew more than 170,000 people to San Francisco, took place on 6-9 November at the Moscone North, South and West.
The scope of the event – of which many parts were recorded, live-streamed, and broadcast – necessitated the use of a tremendous amount of wireless equipment including microphones, IEMs, IFBs, and wireless intercom.
The conference planners called on Orlando-based Professional Wireless Systems (PWS) to provide wireless frequency coordination for the multi-day event. This year there were six film crews covering the convention centre halls and other buildings in addition to all the wireless RF devices that were in use for each show segment in the Moscone Centre and hotels.
“We decided to coordinate the film crews first, since they would be roaming throughout every room and building, and t

Europe - GearSource has added Jeroen Knol to its business development team. Jeroen is based in Europe and well networked in the European markets, having worked the last 12 years with two of the world’s largest industry-related companies. He will bring his network and relationship management skills to GearSource Europe.
Along with Jeroen in Europe, the company’s US-based business development and operations teams will support everything from listings to orders, logistics and more.
GearSourceEurope.com now operates as a fully integrated and secure e-commerce platform, built on the company’s redeveloped engine, G-Suite offering users even more power than ever before.
“In developing G-Suite, our technology team has once again raised the bar. G-Suite will help us remain the largest name in used gear – globally,” says Marcel Fairbairn, CEO of GearSource.

USA - Schertler S.A, Swiss manufacturer of acoustic amplification systems, will launch its new Arthur Prime compact mixer series at the 2018 NAMM Show.
Specially designed for smaller-scale live performance and recording applications, Prime mixers will initially be available in fixed 5-, 9- and 13-channel configurations. Each compact, competitively-priced model uses technology from Schertler’s flagship Arthur (Format 48) mixer, including the same No Negative Feedback (NFB) structure for fast response and natural attack, the same hi-voltage (48V) power supply for superior headroom and the same high-quality preamps on input channels.
Added to this are two aux sends, a built-in digital reverb, stereo inputs (1/4” balanced inputs with Pan) that can be used as either 2x Mono or a single Stereo In and other essential features for straightforward, high-quality sound produc

The Netherlands - EM Acoustics will reveal HALO Arena at ISE 2018. HALO-C made an impact when it was first launched in 2012. Five years on and EM Acoustics is ready to make the same kind of impact in the arena sound reinforcement market; built on the same core design intent as the much smaller HALO-C, HALO-A takes overall SPL capability to a level suitable for much larger applications, both fixed installation and touring.
HALO-A benefits from the same “maximum headroom” design that characterises its little brother, HALO-C, ensuring that that HALO-A delivers consistent performance across all SPL levels. A single HALO-A cabinet exhibits a flat, free-field frequency response from 48Hz to 19kHz (+/-3dB) and a phase response which is +/- 20 degrees between 150Hz and 18kHz. Due to the unique loading technique applied to the low frequency drivers combined with the high frequen

USA - New for the 2018 Winter NAMM Show, sE Electronics has announced the V7 BFG: a special chrome Signature Edition of sE’s TEC-Award-nominated V7 dynamic microphone, created in partnership with Mr. Billy F. Gibbons - best known as the guitarist of ZZ Top.
The V7 BFG is the signature vocal microphone for Billy F. Gibbons. Best known as the guitarist and lead vocalist of legendary American rock band ZZ Top, Billy Gibbons consistently ranks as one of the greatest guitarists of all time. From sE: “This Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame inductee and iconic blues-rock guitarist from Texas has been performing on the road for decades, and is still musically hyper-active with The Kings of Chaos, the BFG’s and – last but definitely not least - ZZ Top!”
The V7 BFG is a dynamic vocal hand-held microphone with a supercardioid polar pattern, delivering “a crisp, open sound t

USA - Funktion-One will exhibit at NAMM for the first time and will use its 800sq.ft stand - north hall stand 1180 - to present loudspeakers from its extensive product range, including US tradeshow debuts for Evolution and Vero as well as the exclusive worldwide launch of the F124 bass enclosure.
The decision to become an exhibitor at The NAMM Show 2018 was based on a number of factors, explains technical sales director, David Bruml: “The US market is more aware than ever of Funktion-One, thanks to the work of our US distributor, Sound Investment, and the arrival of Vero, which has been used on some really big events. We feel it’s the right time to pay additional attention to developing the US market.
“We have chosen NAMM for that because we believe it’s the right show, with the right people on the show floor - thanks in no small part to the organiser’s incr

UK - Chroma-Q will showcase their latest award-winning LED lighting solutions for theatre, rock 'n' roll, corporate and architectural applications at PLASA Focus Glasgow 2018 (stand C2).
Sharing a premium feature set which includes homogenised optics, extremely bright and uniform output, colour consistency, theatrical grade dimming and ultra-quiet operation, colour-mixing models on display include the multi award-winning Color Force II LED cyclorama, wash & effects light; the Color One 100X LED PAR; and the multi award-winning new Inspire XT LED house light. Also showing is the Space Force variable white LED soft light.
(Jim Evans)

UK - Tasked with creating a fresh regime of visual anarchy for Prodigy’s most recent tour, lighting and set designer Tim Fawkes chose to work with rental specialist HSL as suppliers of lighting and a crew who were chiefed by Matt Brown.
Tim took a brief from the band and long-term manager John Fairs. This led to the development of four custom semi scenic old-style searchlight assemblies upstage, with big hexagonal outer shells and packed with more modern lightning technology. These, together with three scenic CCTV camera towers were the main set pieces,
”The underlying idea was to create a scene of dystopia on stage,” explained Tim. The set was built by Stage One. Tim devised the shape and size of the searchlight housings which he modelled and tweaked in WYSIWYG before finalising. They were a compromise between being tourable, relatively light at under 300kg each

UK - Helping to bring a touch of nostalgia to TV screens across the UK, illumination specialists LED Creative supported scenic designer Chris Webster and lighting director Dave Davey on Talkback Thames’ recently revamped The Price is Right.
Recorded in front of a live studio audience, the programme was hosted by Alan Carr who invited members of the audience to “Come on Down” against the backdrop of Chris Webster’s vivacious set.
As a part of the build, LED Creative supplied the team with over 2km of their Alpha 60 RGB system which the designer used to create the myriad of light boxes, which were bursting with colour across the back of the stage. Additionally, each lightbox was fitted with a saturation diffuser, sourced specifically for the project to deliver consistently vivid colours in all key lighting conditions.
Elsewhere within the set, the Al

UK - Imelda May recently completed a short run of concert dates with a commanding performance at the Royal Albert Hall, where Bob Geldof and Ronnie Wood were among her special guests.
With the London concert hall the only venue on the itinerary requiring an imported sound system, Capital Sound, the artiste’s equipment vendor for the past seven years, fielded their flagship Martin Audio MLA PA in a new sleek format, tailor made for the RAH.
With a new front of house engineer in Waynne Smart, and a requirement to provide 270° coverage (only the choir stalks at the rear were left empty), they deployed a more compact and efficient system that had first been successfully trialled at the RAH back in late Spring, with shows by Roger Hodgson and the Beach Boys.
Stating that Smart had readily given his blessing to working with MLA, Capital director, Paul Timmins, expl

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