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The Netherlands - With the return of the Welcome to the Future festival on 22 July, the scenic parklands of Wet Twiske, just north of Amsterdam, once again became a green heart pumping to the beat of visionary house and techno. The annual festival, now in its 11th year, prides itself on providing an intimate atmosphere filled with colourful decorations and the highest quality sounds, so it was no surprise that organisers opted for a Vero sound system on the main stage.
For event director, Carina Kornfeind, the success of the system’s debut at last year’s festival made it first choice for this 2017 outing. "For the second year in a row, we introduced Funktion-One’s vertical array sound system, Vero, at Welcome to the Future, bringing us a new dimension of frequencies and

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UK - This year, the PLASA Rigging Conference will move away from its traditional format of a series of presentations to a new structure that encourages conversation, allowing opinions to be voiced and the most current of topics to be discussed.
Following the opening speech from the legendary Morris Lyda - who has worked with artists ranging from Traffic, David Bowie, Genesis, Pink Floyd, The 3 Tenors, and Phil Collins and on special events such as the Barcelona and Sydney Olympics, specialising in building and motivating people to produce extraordinary outcomes - Alan Jacobi, LVO, Unusual Rigging (Platinum Sponsor) will chair the morning panel session, with Mark Surtees, MD, Outback (Gold Sponsor) chairing the afternoon session.
“We want to make the Rigging Conference an event that’s highly topical and relevant to the wider industry, to reach an audience who are no

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UK - From this month, David Faulkes will be the new sales manager for Highlite in the south of the UK. David has been in the lighting- and audio-business for more than 25 years. With extensive experience with Martin Professional, Miltec and more recently Chauvet, he brings a wealth of knowledge and customer contacts to Highlite.
David states: “I’m looking forward to working with Highlites broad range of audio and lighting products. They have everything you could possibly need to make a great show; a one-stop-shop. I’m enthusiastic about the new range of Phantom and Infinity moving heads. They are well designed products which can be used in a wide range of applications and are a cost-effective solution.
“Their audio-range is very comprehensive. I like the fact that it varies from small installation components to big outdoor systems. I see great opportunities for
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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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UK - The experienced Dave Ball has joined RCF UK to boost their Technical Support. He will be responsible for the area south of the M62, while Mick Butler will continue to look after the north of England and Scotland.
Ball joins from Polar Audio where he was business development manager. During his long career, Dave Ball has also worked at LMC’s Birmingham office, spent time with KV2 (where he first met Mick Butler) and between 1993-2004 ran his own PA company.
Based between Stafford and Stoke, he says his preference is to work for a single brand rather than multiple brands. “It’s a great opportunity to be involved with a company of RCF’s pedigree,” he said. “This was part of the attraction, and I also wanted to take up a more technical role as I enjoy the training element.”
Of the new appointment, RCF UK director of sales, Dean Davoile, said, “It

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USA - For nearly a decade, ETC’s Ion consoles have brought powerful control to theatres, concert venues, studios and events around the world. Now, with the release of two Ion Xe consoles and two new fader wings, the workhorse of the Eos family gets an upgrade.
With compact footprints and full-featured Eos software, Ion Xe consoles bring high-level, award-winning programming power to smaller venues. Since the new consoles feature the same backlit keyboard layout as their larger Eos family siblings, your workflow can transfer seamlessly from desk to desk. Ion Xe desks support up to external two multi-touch monitors, so you can take full hands-on advantage of colour tools, Magic Sheets, Direct Selects and more.
Ion Xe consoles feature full main playback controls, fader controls, level and rate wheels, four rotary parameter encoders and support for up to five USB-connect

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UK - The 2012 collapse of an integral steel frame structure during the building of City Gates Church in Ilford, Essex, made the regional news headlines. The dramatic incident – which fortunately resulted in no injuries despite twenty construction workers having left the site only minutes before the collapse – was inevitably a major setback in the development of the new church, requiring the 1,200 strong congregation to relocate to a nearby cinema for services.
But Pastor Rev. Stephen Derbyshire and his team were resolutely unbowed by the episode, ultimately raising £9m for a new church to stand on the same site. After several years of work the five-storey building – which includes a large auditorium, office space, children’s facilities and coffee shop – finally opened its doors last summer.
At the heart of the new church is a 1,000 capacity auditorium that w

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Dominican Republic - When Justin Bieber’s Purpose world tour played the Hard Rock Hotel in the Dominican Republic earlier in the year, Dominican-based rental company and Elation dealer BM Eventos was there to supply Elation’s Platinum Beam 5R beam light’s for some classic beam looks.
D Cory FitzGerald had 120 of the pioneering beam fixtures at his disposal to provide eye-catching barrages of thick beams from positions in the overhead rig, stage front, right and left, and from the walkway.
“It’s been a very important lighting fixture in the industry for many years with excellent, proven performance,” stated general manager Edwin Belliard of BM Eventos, the rental company responsible for assembly of the lighting and lighting control system for the show. “The Platinum Beam 5R gives a lot of quality at a low cost. On the Justin Bieber show here in the

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Canada - BlackTrax realtime motion tracking system kept the spotlight in focus for the Starboy: Legend of The Fall worldwide tour for Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and record producer, The Weeknd. Solotech, Montreal supplied BlackTrax for the tour.
Production manager, Rob DeCeglio, takes up the story: “BlackTrax was the first tracking system that I have used that is worth the setup time. Other systems in the past either were not accurate enough or still require human operators of some kind. This certainly opens the doors for other tracking applications and diversification, everything from artists to set pieces.”
“For the Weeknd, it’s always about art. Designers and production alike are charged with creating something that’s unique, something that compliments and enhances the music, and something that brings the focus without being a distracti

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UK - Glastonbury is well-known for being a festival with quirky elements and the bravado to push technological and creative boundaries; and it’s one that PRG XL Video continues to be involved with.
Nick Diacre, technical director of ddld, partnered with PRG XL to bring an innovative 360˚ video installation to the Gas Tower area in Shangri-La. Nick described the concept of the installation at Glastonbury this year: “We’ve created a 360˚ immersive projection environment in an outdoor arena with a capacity of 1200. The structure itself is inescapable to the audience, being almost 12m tall in places, and completely encompassing the arena. Over the period of four days, we welcomed over 50 guest artists, as well as VJs and AV artists to the arena to contribute content across our 360˚ screen.”
Shangri-La’s Willy Brothwood was responsible for the design and build

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Hungary - Martin Audio PA systems were once again all over the massive seven-day Sziget Festival in Hungary - the final leg of a three-event tour of the country, which included Volt and Balaton Festivals.
Capital supplied two trucks of equipment, including the bulk of the MLA, MLD, MLX and MLA Compact enclosures, while Martin Audio’s Polish partners, Musnicki, provided the remainder of Martin Audio’s flagship PA for the 25th edition of this landmark event. Featuring daily capacity crowds of 90,000, the event is dubbed the Island of Freedom (due to its picturesque location on the Danube).
In addition to main stage, Martin Audio premier PA systems once again featured on the Colosseum and Europe stages, courtesy of the manufacturer’s Hungarian partner, BG Event.
Capital Sound has worked the event almost continuously for 12 years and MLA has featured for the

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UK - Star Events supplied a roofed Vista Royal box, complete with a passenger lift, VIP seating, a 17m Orbit stage and more to Unique Events for the formal opening of the £1.35bn Queensferry Crossing on Monday.
Star provided media structures at the south side of the crossing, where 53 years after performing a similar duty at the neighbouring Forth Road Bridge, the Queen, who was accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, cut a ceremonial ribbon.
The Queen then travelled the 2,700m to the north side by car to make a speech from the 12.5m Vista, where she described the Crossing as an “extraordinary achievement”.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also spoke, paying tribute to the people who built the bridge.
“On this day, 100 years from now, as a future generation gathers to mark its centenary, they will gaze at the towers and they will still marvel

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USA - Bandit Lites has announced the hiring of Laura McElmurray to its global headquarters. McElmurray will be taking on the role of accounts payable manager.
McElmurray received degrees in both accounting and business administration and joins Bandit following working several years in other industries as an accountant.
Shay Simpson, Bandit’s controller, comments: “Laura has been such a valuable addition to the accounting team. She not only brings with her 10-plus years of experience in Accounts Payable and general accounting, but a level of detail that is imperative in her role. I look forward to seeing her expand her accounting knowledge with her career at Bandit Lites.”
(Jim Evans)

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UK - Audio-Technica is to showcase an array of live sound product from both its own and distributed brand portfolios at this year’s PLASA Show between 17-19 September at Olympia.
Key microphones from Audio-Technica’s live-oriented Artist and Artist Elite series – including the latest ATM350a cardioid condenser instrument mic, ATM230 hypercardioid dynamic and AE2300 cardioid dynamic – will appear alongside popular stage-friendly models from its 40 Series, currently used by artists from Rudimental to Royal Blood.
Allen & Heath’s flagship dLive digital mixing system will be much in evidence too, with the S5000 control surface and the new rackmountable C Class C1500 surface available for visitors to get hands-on with. In addition, the company’s versatile Qu Series will be represented by the Qu-16 digital mixer and portable Qu-Pac and Qu-SB mixers, rounding

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Antarctica - When Nerio Gutierrez, co-owner of Madrid-based production company, Playground Estudio, was given the challenge of producing a documentary about Antarctica's view of the world, he knew he was going to be up against some of the most extreme weather conditions.
In order to capture the unique sounds and ambience of this harsh, frozen land, he turned to a selection of microphones from DPA Microphones for the documentary titled Antarctica, A Message from the Other Planet.
"The most important thing in a project like this is to be sure that your tools will respond in any condition without any worries," says Gutierrez. "We faced extreme cold, extreme moisture and extreme winds, but our DPA d:dicate 4017B Shotgun, d:dicate 4011C Cardioid and d:screet 4061 Necklace Microphones worked incredibly well and gave us the best sound we could possibly get from a place

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Denmark - Working with the Danish award-winning band Carpark North since 2014, renowned lighting designer Johnny Thinggaard Lydiksen raised the bar on this year’s festival tour, creating a 16m wide LED screen as fuse to mind blowing visuals. The 5,8m long LB-100 LED ball strings complimented the 5 4,5x2m video screens, while creating a flexible stage screen suitable for for different stage sizes on tour.
Combining Denmark’s top band within electro rock with one of the most influential lighting designers in the country was a perfect match for spoiling festival audiences with a creative and first-class show. Recently, at Denmark’s second biggest festival Smukfest 2017, Johnny and Carpark North performed in front of 25,000 music fans.
“I wanted to create a large background behind our video system, adding an extra dimension. At first, I worked with traditional vide

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UK - The CPS Group, based on the south coast, has long had a close relationship with leisure and event venue operator BH Live. Since 1994, CPS has secured a reputation for providing high-end technical services and installations of performance lighting, pro-audio, and AV technology to the entertainment and leisure industries across the south and the UK. So, it came as no surprise that BH Live’s technical stage manager, Simon Bagnall contacted Simon White at CPS in the first instance when he was looking for a new console.
“Our choice for another MA Lighting dot2 console from Ambersphere Solutions through CPS was to build on standardising our stock of control surfaces across our venues,” opens Bagnall. “We purchased our first dot2 about 18 months ago. Since then, we have invested in two further consoles along with a fader and button wing. The platform has proved itself

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Belgium - The largest summer beach festival in Belgium and one of the most popular in Northern Europe, 2 Meisjes op het Strand, is known for more than just music.
Also drawing thousands of fans and attracting a large national TV audience on Flemish network VTM are the breathtaking harbour vistas at the festival site. At this year’s event, Michiel Milbou and his team at Never Fear Shadows did justice to the festival’s music and its surroundings with a stunning stage and lighting design that featured 410 Chauvet Professional ÉPIX Strip IP fixtures, supplied by Phlippo Productions.
Never Fear Shadows’ design concept for the festival was built around a 60m x 20m translucent stage structure built exclusively from the ÉPIX Strip IP fixtures. The structure provided sizzling visual support for the music of K3, Niels Destadsbader, Gers Pardoel and other stars. At

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UK - Occupying the same position as for PLASA’s inaugural return to Olympia in 2016, GoboPlus.com, will be exhibiting at the 40th PLASA 2017 on Stand B2 in London Olympia (17-19 September). GoboPlus.com is the one-stop online shop for custom and standard metal, glass and plastic gobos, accessories and Rosco E-Colour filter, It will share a stand with its sister company, Cut Colour Plus, the bespoke filter-cutting and comprehensive scroll-making service supplying the entertainment, educational and architectural markets.
GoboPlus.com has recently expanded its inventory to encompass complementary products and will be showing the Rosco Image Spot Projector for indoor and outdoor use, and the Martin Rush Gobo Projector. Both of these gobo projectors can be purchased directly from the GoboPlus.com website at www.goboplus.com. GoboPlus will also show a selection of Suprabeam pro

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UK - At 37 years old, MDG knows all about longevity and the value of creating high quality products for its clients. With this in mind, MDG UK will be celebrating PLASA’s milestone 40th Anniversary with a selection of its award-winning and world-renowned haze and fog generators. These rock-solid machines continue to cement MDG’s long-standing reputation for the finest and most reliable atmosphere generators on the market.
The ATMe haze generator, the ME2 fog generator and the ICE FOG COMPACK low fog generator will be shown on Stand D50, alongside theONE award-winning dual fog and haze generator, and complemented by theFAN, the indispensible variable speed digital fan.
MDG’s ATMe haze generator is a development of the industry standard MDG Atmosphere haze generator. It shares the same compact dimensions, but with increased output and power efficiency, and the add

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UK - Since Luminex's soft launch of the super-flexible GigaCore 10 Gigabit switch - at Prolight+Sound in Frankfurt earlier this year - it has fast established itself as the manufacturer's most versatile plug-and-play Gigabit Ethernet Switch to date.
The GigaCore 10 is specifically designed to address the rigours of the live events and touring industry where effortless set up, flexible use options, compact size and rugged reliability are key. To complement this, Luminex has designed a thoughtful range of accessories to enable easy rigging in all professional environments - including touring trusses, 19 inch rack and wall mountings.
Safeguarding the product's industry relevance, Luminex has developed and validated the key features of the GigaCore 10 in collaboration with its dealer network, third party manufacturers and end users.
With eight fully pre-configured Et

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UK - Audio-Technica has collaborated with Audient to deliver the AT2035-Studio ‘Essential Studio Kit’, a microphone/interface/headphone bundle ideal for budding producers and musicians in home studios or on the move.
Comprising Audio-Technica’s perennially popular AT2035 large diaphragm cardioid condenser mic and ATH-M40x studio monitor headphones, the Essential Studio Kit is completed by Audient’s outstanding iD4 Black USB audio interface.
Featuring a renowned Audient mic preamp, the 2-in/2-out iD4 Black boasts class-leading converter technology, JFET DI and the company’s ScrollControl virtual scroll wheel technology.
The Essential Studio Kit delivers a significant saving on the RRP of the individual components when bought separately – and also includes no less than £500 of Audient curated free plug-ins, production tools and training (available on r
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