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Live in London - The first live acts for The BRITs 2018 have been confirmed: Ed Sheeran, Stormzy, Sam Smith and Dua Lipa will perform at the BRITs show on 21 February.
BRITs chairman Jason Iley said: “I’m very excited to confirm such a strong British line-up as our first four live acts for the main show in 2018: Ed Sheeran has had an exceptional year, across the world and we are thrilled to have him back on the show. Then we have previous Critics’ Choice winner Sam Smith returning to our stage following the incredible success of yet another No.1 album this year. Stormzy has had a phenomenal 2017, putting grime firmly on the map with his No. 1 album Gang Signs & Prayer and Dua Lipa has been the biggest British female breakthrough story of the year.”

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UK - Audiologic has appointed Ben Spurgeon as application support engineer. Ben, who holds a first-class BSc (Hons) degree in Audio Recording and Production from the University of Hertfordshire, joins the company from Sound Technology and will be working alongside engineer Yavor 'Max' Yanakiev to strengthen the team in response to rising demand for in-house and on-site support from its growing customer base.
Ben has varied experience in all aspects of AV system design and installation in a wide variety of settings and is familiar with the major professional audio brands.
Andy Lewis, sales and marketing director at Audiologic comments: “Ben possesses precisely the kind of expertise essential to support our customers in the often complex and challenging world of contemporary AV installation.”
(Jim Evans)

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UK - The Hazlitt Theatre’s recent investment in ProLights LED fixtures for their studio space has exceeded expectations so much that they have been promoted to the main stage.
Parkwood Theatres, which owns and manages the Hazlitt Theatre, purchased ProLights StudioCOB LED PARs, ProLights Jetspot3 LED spots, and ProLights Diamond19 LED wash luminaires.
The team at the venue in Maidstone, Kent were so impressed with the performance of their new fixtures that they moved many of them into the main house to light their bigger productions – starting with this year's ‘all-star’ Christmas Pantomime, Cinderella.
Sam Ray, the theatre's technical manager and LD forCinderella, commented: "The ProLights fixtures have really exceeded our expectations since arriving in our studio, so I wanted the benefit of using them on our main stage productions too - 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

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South Africa - Technical services and equipment supplier MGG expanded its inventory with the investment of a Hippotizer V4 Boreal. The media server made its first appearance at the EOH Annual Year End celebration hosted at three locations.
At the Johannesburg leg, Gallagher Estate in Midrand ran two shows with 4000 guests attending per night, while 2 000 guests attended the performance hosted at the Cape Town International Convention Centre and a further 700 people attended the wonderful festivities at the Durban ICC.
Johan Botha from MGG has been in the industry for many years, and has experience with media servers, though it was his first time on the Hippotizer V4 Boreal. “An MA command wing controlled the Hippotizer V4. We ran main and back-up which went into a matrix switcher in the unlikely case that anything should go wrong. Honestly though, the Hippo is a reli

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USA - Fort Scott High School is home to the Tigers volleyball and basketball teams, both of which figure large in the school's identity and after-school social life. In fact, the school recently completed construction on a second gymnasium so that multiple games and/or practices can happen simultaneously.
The new gym obviously needed a new sound reinforcement system, but the existing gym and a second-floor weight room did as well. Audio/video integration firm Total Electronics Contracting (TEC) designed and installed a combined system that handles all three spaces. Because TEC's Joplin, Missouri headquarters is two-and-a-half hours round trip from Fort Scott, TEC AV project manager Nate Pugh called on the 24/7 reliability of Ashly Audio nX-Series multi-mode amplifiers to minimize the need for service calls.
"The existing gym had four ancient-looking loudspeakers in me

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USA - McAllen is part of the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the state of Texas and is located in the Rio Grande valley, just north of Mexico. The McAllen Independent School District operates the public elementary, middle, and high schools for the children of its 130,000 residents.
After struggling for years with low-intelligibility, low-impact sound reinforcement systems in the auditoriums of its three high schools - McAllen, Rowe, and Memorial, the McAllen ISD hired the A/V integration team at local Hermes Music to rectify the situation. Ed Zamorano, director of educational/ governmental sales at Hermes Music, designed a Danley loudspeaker/subwoofer/amp/DSP system for the larger McAllen High School auditorium (1,500 seats) that was so successful, district officials asked Hermes Music to install identical systems in the smaller auditoriums (each approximately 400 seats)

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UK - Rugby Theatre in Warwickshire is an amateur company which produces 10 shows annually. Staffed and run entirely by volunteers, their own productions include drama, farce, musicals and theatrical classics while visiting performers and productions feature brass bands, children’s dance, opera and celebrity speakers.
Autograph Sales & Installations were approached by the theatre to determine why the vocal clarity and intelligibility in their venue was not always up to the high standards achieved by the other elements of their productions. After extensive acoustic testing and A/B comparisons, the theatre commissioned Autograph to supply and install a completely new sound system based on EM Acoustics loudspeakers as well as a new digital console and a selection of microphones.
At the core of the new sound system is a suite of loudspeakers from EM Acoustics’ EMS S

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Australia - Melbourne-based audio specialist Full Throttle Entertainment has invested in a Vero sound system from Funktion-One. According to company founder, Adam Ward, the addition of the vertically arrayed loudspeaker system equips them to do bigger shows and answers the requirements of a wider range of clients.
Ward said: “Full Throttle Entertainment has been deploying the Resolution Series with much success for a number of years. We were consistently being approached by our clients to do bigger and bigger shows. Vero is the answer in addressing these large format requirements, as well as bringing what is, in my opinion, a new benchmark to live touring.
“Vero opens up a lot of different markets for us. Many clients need to see speakers look a particular way and irrespective of how amazing Vero sounds, it has the look many corporate and live clients want to see.

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UK - In venues the length and breadth of the UK, Christmas concerts and the grand tradition of pantomime are getting thousands of people into the festive spirit. Yamaha mixing consoles are at the heart of many, with no less than six hard at work in Perth, Scotland.
Opened in 2005, Perth Concert Hall is a truly modern, multipurpose venue. Amongst many innovations, the main Gannochy Auditorium features movable seating, stage and thrust stage to transform the space for a wide variety of productions. The technical specification is similarly state-of-the-art, with Yamaha CL5, PM5D, LS9-32, O1V96 digital mixing consoles and R-series i/o boxes, all on a Dante network.
The venue is owned and managed by Horsecross Arts, which also runs the adjacent Perth Theatre. Having reopened in November 2017 after a four year, £16.6m refurbishment, Yamaha QL5 and QL1 digital consoles were

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Switzerland - The Basel Tattoo celebrated its 12th anniversary by once again using TiMax object-based spatial audio and showcontrol to maintain localisation and musical timing between the marching players and the distributed spatial reinforcement sound system.
An import of the legendary Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which also uses TiMax, the Basel production is staged outdoors in front of the 18th century Kaserne Hof barracks on the Rhine. A dozen or so acts of marching bands, dancers and sometimes animals perform across a 70m x 25m parade arena surrounded by audience seating on three sides.
Award-winning Swiss sound designer, Thomas Strebel, specified a TiMax SoundHub-S48 spatial processor which received, via MADI, 10 arena, ambient, mic feeds plus five groups from a DiGiCo SD7 console, comprising submixes of performer radio mics plus Ableton music playback for various

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UK - Swedish electro four-piece band Little Dragon has been on a roll in 2017, as their heavy ethereal beats and synth-driven hooks have garnered them a following on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as slots at the Coachella and Bestival festivals.
Reflective of the band’s stratospheric surge in popularity is the new lighting rig on its current sold-out UK tour. LD Tim Smith, who recently began collaborating with the band, specified Maverick MK Pyxis fixtures, as well as COLORdash Par-Hex 12 units, from Chauvet Professional for their current touring rig.
“After Bestival and our other summer commitments came to an end, Little Dragon’s tour manager asked me to start looking for a fixture package that would be able to fit in one trailer along with the rest of our gear, whilst still maintaining the original look and feel of previous performances,” commented Smit

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Europe - Indie pop band Sylvan Esso has been making waves on both sides of the Atlantic, having played top venues across North America this summer, including the Fox Theatre in Oakland, the Hollywood Palladium, Brooklyn Steel New York and Prospect Park, before completing a European tour in support of their second album, What Now in the autumn.
The duo engaged production designer, Zach Sternberg - who has been with them since their first album in 2013 - to devise a dynamic set and lighting design that could be toured across venues of various capacities.
Sternberg based his design around a giant cantilever system of custom trapezoidal truss attached to six weighted carts, each of which carried four new Ayrton MagicBlade-FX fixtures which he used to define the geometric shape. The result is a sculptural element formed of a series of chevrons, the outline of which

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Singapore - Robert Juliat fixtures were specified for the Singapore Airlines (SIA) Theatre at the LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore as part of the venue's lighting inventory upgrade.
Ten years after the college moved into its McNally Street campus that houses the theatre, senior technical officers Patrick Wong and Sayuthi Bin Jasmin took delivery of 10 Robert Juliat Dalis 860 Cyclorama LED battens to replace the 10-year old conventional cyclorama and groundrow lighting.
“Prior to the acquisition of our new Dalis units we were using eight tungsten cyclorama lights and a similar number of tungsten groundrows,” explains Patrick. “These have been excellent workhorses, but conventional lighting fixtures come with their problems as well.
“The age and fragility of these fixtures meant lamp replacement was becoming more and more frequent and a bit of a c

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UK - Doughty Engineering has worked alongside property and construction consultants Ridge to provide a permanent lighting installation for the transmitter mast at Alexandra Palace.
Renowned worldwide as the birthplace of television, Alexandra Palace remained the major production centre for BBC from 1936 to the early 1950s, except during the Second World War. While no broadcasts now take place from Ally Pally, as it is affectionately known, the transmitter mast is one of the most iconic landmarks in the north London skyline.
To celebrate the 80th anniversary of the first television broadcast, Alexandra Palace wanted to “light up” its iconic telecommunications mast and Ridge was on hand to provide its electrical engineering and lighting design skills.
Andrew Selwood, associate at Ridge explained: “Working alongside Architainment Lighting, we came up with an

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UK - Cymatic Audio has appointed Riverside Audio to handle the exclusive sales representation of all Cymatic products in the UK from 1 January 2018.
Riverside Audio is headed up by UK sales veteran Nick Longland, whose background in the MI and pro audio industry spans almost 20 years, including nearly 13 years with Sennheiser UK. During that time, he has gained an immense knowledge of the industry and built strong relationships with his customers.
Cymatic Audio CEO Arie van den Broek comments: “Nick’s experience and vast network of contacts in the UK across both MI and pro audio markets make him ideally placed to represent Cymatic products in the UK. His personal and personable approach and ‘rep firm’ business model are a perfect fit for us, and we are looking forward to a mutually profitable working relationship.”
Longland adds: “In setting up River

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Denmark - SGM has announced Frank Hoehn as its new vice-president of global sales.
Frank has most recently worked as director of business development and has who has held international management positions in Australia, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland.
He comments: “SGM is structured in a very professional way, with all the right elements to continue to develop further to be a really important player, and I am excited to be able to use my experience to help SGM grow and EMEA hospitality for Martin / Harman International.”
“Denmark has always been strong in going out in the world and selling what Denmark has to offer. For such a small country to have so many world-renowned and iconic brands and companies is quite amazing, and is only possible if you are open to learn about other cultures, without moving away from own principles. Everyone here is so nice

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USA - City Theatrical’s DMXcat Multi Function Test Tool is now available in seven languages: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Korean, Japanese, and English. DMXcat was translated in partnership with multilingual lighting professionals to ensure that technical and industry terms were captured appropriately in every offered language.
Based on the user’s smartphone language settings, the suite of mobile applications will automatically update its written content to Spanish, French, German, Italian, Korean, Japanese, or English, if the others are not selected. Translations are now live for iPhone, Android, and Amazon Fire.
City Theatrical‘s DMXcat Multifunction Test Tool makes it easy for anyone to control, analyse, or test any DMX lighting fixture, whether it’s a simple LED PAR or a complex moving light. The system consists of a small hardware dongle and a suite

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The Netherlands - Nexo will be presenting a line-up of pro loudspeakers at ISE 2018, with the French manufacturer also set to display new series of bespoke loudspeakers stands and mounts designed by Showem.
Nexo’s all-white display will feature the compact ID Series, including the ID24 full-range speaker. It uses twin 4” drivers in a V formation in combination with an HF compression driver and has an adjustable horn that rotates easily by a switch on the rear panel, giving 60 or 120 degree HF coverage. As the ID24 can be mounted vertically or horizontally, this effectively gives the user four different directivity options in each cabinet.
The Geo M6 compact line array will also be on show. Marketed as suitable for house of worship environments and applications, it keeps a low visual profile in historic buildings.
Nexo is also bringing the Geo M620 - a full-r

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Australia - Sia’s Nostalgic for the Present tour delivered three stadium shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, with the internationally-acclaimed singer bringing her long-time FOH engineer Jon Lemon behind the mixing desk.
Lemon has known Sia for most of her life and has been doing gigs for her on and off since 2002, mixing at small venues and large stadiums alike.
“It’s a very organised show,” he says of the recent tour. “The biggest challenge was putting it all together in the first place as it’s mostly playback in terms of the music. The brief I had was to make it feel like it was live but also sound like the record with SIA then singing live on top of it.
“I see it a lot with hip hop and rap where it’s just the artist and a DJ with minimum amount of stems and the engineer has just got nowhere to go and nuance it like the record. The

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Italy - Tribute show Pavarotti, An Endless Emotion marked the 10th anniversary of Luciano Pavarotti’s death. Held at the Verona Arena in September, it was broadcast to 5.5m Rai TV viewers and even more tuned on national radios.
Artists who played with the Maestro during the numerous editions of Pavarotti & Friends wanted to be on stage for this occasion to ‘sing’ again with the Maestro, requiring 226 channels of mic and line signals coming from the band, the orchestra, the choir, the solo singers and the announcers, with 24 additional playback tracks of Pavarotti’s voice.
Agorà, the Italian production company that supported the event, chose two pairs of DiGiCo SD7 for mixing both in front of house and on stage. Two more DiGiCo SD11 were added in both locations to manage the mics of the announcers and special guests. Two SSL L500 consoles used

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UK - Swiss studio monitor manufacturer PSI Audio was chosen to provide the audio monitoring for dozens of new studios at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield near London.
At the audio branch, every student can use their own studio equipped to industry standards for the duration of the course, and the school wanted to specify monitors that could reproduce sound neutrally.
NFTS picked PSI Audio monitors from an initial set of seven brands and 15 models, buying PSI Audio A14-M, A17-M, A21-M monitors and A125-M subwoofers.
“All in all, it was a four-month process,” reveals Jérémy Rodeschini. senior supervising engineer. “People are very passionate about speakers.”
He also highlights the reliability of the Swiss manufacturer: “They came over here on multiple occasions, so we knew they would be there if we needed them. We felt ap
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