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UK - West London-based lighting and visuals rental specialist Colour Sound Experiment supplied a bespoke built touring lighting ‘specials’ package to alt rockers The Kooks for their recent The Best of … so Far tour.
This UK leg of the tour closed with a high-profile gig at London’s Alexandra Palace for which additional lighting production was added, together with IMAG video.
The band has been a Colour Sound client for some time and this tour was project managed by Alex Ryan, who worked closely with Kooks production manager Dave Skelton, who is also their monitor engineer.
The need was for a tourable, quick-rig solution to get their own lights in and up-and-running every day, which could then be used in conjunction with the venue’s overhead house r

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Europe - Depeche Mode launched a world tour to celebrate its latest album, Spirit in Stockholm on 5 May. In the first part of the tour, the band will be performing 34 shows in front of 1.5m fans in 21 different European countries. The musicians will then continue their tour in North and South America.
In order to ensure that the Depeche Mode sound comes across as it should live in the various arenas throughout the world, sound engineer Antony King is placing his trust in a whole range of beyerdynamic products. “Unlike in the studio, where we have the optimum conditions for audio work, achieving a good live sound always involves successfully overcoming the challenges posed by the respective venue. And when it comes to dealing with such unavoidable circumstances, it’s great to be able to rely on technology that is designed to overcome any obstacle,” explains King.

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Europe/USA - During an extensive tour that will see him play headline shows and festivals across Europe and the US, Bryan Ferry is relying on Audio-Technica AE6100 hypercardioid dynamic microphones to deliver his distinctive vocals. Other Audio-Technica models are in service for his 10-piece backing band, while monitoring duties for the tour are handled by Allen & Heath’s dLive S Class mixing system, distributed in the UK by Audio-Technica.
Monitor engineer Tom Howat reports: “The AE6100 made a great impression on Bryan as soon as we started using it in rehearsals. He loved the sound of it – which is almost condenser-like in its openness. But because of the hypercardioid pickup pattern it minimises on-stage spill. We’re using two AE6100s, one for his main vocal and one at his keyboard position and it’s really an excellent choice.
“We’re also using the
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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 - MDG reports that two of its ATMe haze generators have been chosen for the current musical production of 42nd Street at London’s Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.
This production, with ‘Sheena Easton in the starring role, makes the most of the stage area which is packed with props, sets and a huge cast. It was obvious from the start that a haze generator was required that could easily deal with the enormous stage space, for the entire show, without compromising the performances or the extensive lighting rig supplied by White Light.
MDG’s ATMe haze generator proved ideal for the job. “I first came across MDG about 10 years ago on a show in South Africa,” says Declan Randall, associate LD to 42nd Street’s lighting designer, Peter Mumford. “I was so impressed with the haze that I went backstage to investigate what they were using. I’ve been a fa

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UK - After a successful year with their first gandMA2 Light, Cambridge based CEG Hire & Productions decided to invest in a second console to ready themselves for the busy upcoming summer season. Director Ben Bowles contacted Ambersphere Solutions: “I’ve known our Ambersphere representative Matt Cowles for several years now: we have confidence and faith in his advice and support so he was our first port of call. His enthusiasm for working with us is a breath of fresh air. He’s always available for answering queries and is super-efficient at turning around requests.”
Ben explains the rationale for another purchase, “Since we purchased our first grandMA2 products last year, both our Light and Command Wings have been used on a variety of theatre, rock ‘n’ roll and corporate projects in the UK and across Europe. Whilst we don’t always have particular jobs line

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USA - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers celebrate their fortieth anniversary and 13 studio albums with their current five-month (53-date) tour of the US and Canada, with an additional date in London in July.
The band’s long-term lighting designer and director, Stanley A Green, who has worked with Petty since 2001 in various roles, chose Ayrton LED fixtures as the backbone of his lighting design. He is one of the first to use the new MagicPanel-FX and MagicBlade-FX units, which he incorporates alongside Ayrton’s MagicBurst and MagicDot-R fixtures to form a palette of rich colours and variety of looks and textures that reflect the musical diversity evident in the band’s long history.
“I first experienced Ayrton’s MagicPanel 602s when acting as LD for John Legend a few years ago,” Green says. “I wanted to use them again so I used both MagicBlade-R and MagicPan

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UK - London-based Factory Settings has appointed Ben Virgo as head of technology. Ben will be heading up the technology department for existing and new projects, working closely alongside the fabrication and construction team.
Ben will be enhancing the company's existing incorporation of technical elements into bespoke fabrication and design, and also bringing them into new markets. Coming from a live event technology background and with experience in lighting control systems, Ben's expertise will now add a plethora of integrated services from LED pixel systems to projection mapping to Factory Settings’ in-house services.
Factory Settings Ltd - based in East London - designs, fabricates and installs exhibitions, theatre sets and experiential environments for some of the UK's leading heritage, artistic and cultural institutions.
(Jim Evans)

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Australia - ARX Systems has released the Network DI Dante Digital-to-Analogue breakout box.
The Network DI digital-to-analogue breakout box utilises the popular Dante network protocol to extract audio from a network and convert it to studio quality transformer isolated low latency analogue audio suitable for connecting to amplifiers, or powered speakers, mixing console and other analogue audio devices using standard Ethernet hardware and cabling.
“Dante has become the long-awaited standard for digital audio distribution in production and install professional audio,” says ARX managing director, Colin Park. “The Network DI is the first product in for our Dante-enabled range, which we’ll be expanding through into 2018.”
(Jim Evans)

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The Netherlands - The newly built and inaugurated Atlas Theatre in Emmen, Netherlands is a multifunctional performance space in the heart of the city and part of a 250m euro development.
In addition to the two Atlas auditoriums - with capacities of 822 and 300 – the complex also includes a full convention centre, catering outlets, offices and is an access point for the Wildlands Adventure Zoo - and Robe moving lights.
The plan to replace the old De Muzeval theatre in the city actually took around 40 years to come to realization for a complexity of reasons. The construction eventually commenced in 2014 and was finished in 2016, with its spectacular, gleamingly modern architectural style, the state-of-the-art facility opened in autumn of last year.
In the meantime, the technical specifications had been completed by acclaimed Amsterdam based theatre consultants T

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Belgium - Thanks to its consistently impressive line-ups and extravagant productions, the five-year old Hype-O-Dream has already succeeded in making an indelible impact on the Belgium summer EDM festival calendar. With this year’s headliners including Lil John and Roger Sanchez raising the bar even higher this year, Creative Rental Solutions were tasked with providing bigger and better visuals then ever for the festival’s five stages.
To achieve this, Creative Rental Solutions incorporated a number of Chauvet Professional Maverick MK1 Hybrid, Maverick MK2 Spot, Rogue R2 Wash and Geyser RGB fixtures into the visual concepts of the Mirage Mainstage and the Flashback Stage.
To complement the Mirage Mainstage’s impressive 20m high Venetian carnival themed main stage, which incorporated three large video screens of eyes masked by traditional Venetian costume, C

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UK - Harrogate-based JSAV UK Ltd has carried out two major installations at German-style Bierkellers, using RCF Media and Acustica series loudspeakers, supplied by dealers, Leisuretec.
The first Original Bierkeller opening for Paul Kinsey’s Latenight Bars in Sheffield has now been followed by a second in Lincoln, which opened last month.
Jaye Selway, who runs JSAV, is no stranger to RCF, and has used their solutions for other late night brands in Paul Kinsey’s estate, including Hemingways Bar and Kitchen, The Moko Lounge and The Kings Club.
But for the special German environment, resplendent with oompah bands and lederhosen, she needed a versatile, compact loudspeaker with wide dispersion, since much of the dancing is conducted on the bench tables and bar tops under a low ceiling.
With separate DJ, band and background music inputs feeding the system she

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USA - The Chelsea Music Festival has prided itself on the diversity of its programming as well as the spaces in which those performances take place. In its first eight seasons, it has presented events at more than 50 locations throughout Chelsea and the rest of Manhattan, from schools to parks to churches. Featuring musical styles running the gamut from classical to jazz as well as visual and culinary experiences to complement them, its crowd mirrors the diversity of its programming.
This year’s festival, which took place in June, utilised the remarkable St. Paul’s German Lutheran Church as the marquee location for its opening and closing weekend performances. Built in 1884-85 in the Romanesque Revivalist style, it is not only notable for its appearance but also for the acoustics of its main chapel. For the first time, live recording experts Jim Anderson and Ulrike Schwa

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UK - Twisted Audio, the Peterborough-based events production company, recently utilised nearly 18sq.m of IP65 rated ProLights AlphaPIX6T 6.6mm pitch LED video wall for the Lovebullets house and disco parties stage, which this year was re-located to the Glade area at Glastonbury Festival.
Owner Barry Williams, who has been supplying to the UK dance scene for over two decades, purchased the system from the specialist video sales division of A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd, the UK distributor for ProLights AlphaPIX.
Since purchasing the video wall last year for a major European sporting event, Barry has been really pleased with its performance and thought it would be ideal for the Lovebullets stage at Glastonbury, where it was configured as a large 'eye candy' backdrop behind and along the front of the DJ booth. The screens were fed various hi-energy graphical video

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USA - The Sinnissippi Music Shell at Sinnissippi Park in Rockford, Illinois is visually striking: a flaring overhead clamshell roof above a modernistic trapezoidal frame around the stage. These kinds of architectural statements, however, often come with challenges for venue sound, and this was no exception.
For this year’s Music In The Park series - which began on 7 June with the Phantom Regiment Drum & Bugle Corps and runs through 3 August with the Funk, Party and Dance Band, and hosts artists performing genres from rock to bluegrass to zydeco to everything in between - Clearwing Productions called on an L-Acoustics Kiva II design to provide a sound system that covers every seat and stands up to weather in a highly exposed location.
The system is made up of 10 Kiva II loudspeakers flown below three SB15m subs in a single centre-hung array, with two SB18m subs on

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UK - The Depeche Mode Global Spirit Tour is currently scheduled for over 90 dates in stadiums and large-scale venues around the world. It started in Sweden in May 2017 and will finish in Brazil in March 2018.
Front of House engineer Antony King is taking two Solid State Logic L500 Plus digital live consoles on the road with him, supplied by UK rental company Britannia Row Productions. "The SSL is the only serious choice out there," Says King, who auditioned several consoles before settling on the L500 for the tour. "With a company like SSL you're not taking risks. You want something that will work every day, sound good, and travel on the truck. So, SSL is the only choice, I think, at this point."
The band plays a mixture of material from both its 14th studio album, Spirit, and its legacy of 17 UK top ten albums and over 100m worldwide records sold. The set list

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Hungary - J&C Joel, has appointed Szinpadtechnika Kft as its new bronze dealer in Hungary.
Szinpadtechnika was established in 1998 and is now one of the leading theatre engineering companies in Hungary. They design and produce stage machinery for theatres, cultural centres and film studios as well as providing machinery maintenance services for more than 50 venues all around Hungary and getting involved with scenery design.
The firm is also gaining recognition from the theatres in neighbouring countries and in light of this is aiming to be the leading company on the field of theatre engineering in the Carpathian Basin region.
Norbert Horvath, sales manager at Szinpadtechnika, said: “We are really excited to introduce the innovative solutions of J&C Joel in Hungary. I’m sure our customers will be really interested in the great product range that J&

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Middle East - After several years of close collaboration and projects in the region, Procom and Prolites are now the official distributors for MADRIX for the Middle East. With this move, MADRIX has expanded the distribution rights from Lebanon to all Middle East countries.
"We are very proud of the trust that MADRIX has put into us in expanding our distribution role. This is a great opportunity but also a responsibility to support the thriving MADRIX community. We are committed to offer the best support for MADRIX users in the Middle East", said Rami Harfouch, business development manager at Procom.
"While there is a strong brand recognition of MADRIX, we believe there is room to increase the awareness about the full potential of the MADRIX software and hardware and emphasize its role in creating robust, trouble-free solutions with superior levels of control", said Wi

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USA - Colin Beveridge, CEO of d&b Corporation since its inception in the mid-1990s has transferred his responsibilities for d&b audiotechnik in the Americas to the next generation as part of a planned retirement. Following the transition Beveridge will remain on board as senior strategic advisor for the management team in the Americas and company headquarters in Backnang, Germany.
William Cornell has succeeded as territory manager for the Americas and president and CEO of d&b audiotechnik US Group, effective 10 July 2017. “I will support William in a direct role until February 2018 to ensure a smooth transition,” says Beveridge. “Like our audio systems, the essential character and performance of d&b will remain consistent. But it will be rejuvenated by the energy I know William will bring to his new role. What is important now is to concentrate on ensur

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Switzerland - Schertler Group has announced the release of Roy, its new flagship combo amp and Teddy, a compact professional stage monitor. These latest additions to the Swiss manufacturer’s portfolio demonstrate a growing commitment to developing solutions that meet the demands of musicians and engineers in the professional live performance and recording environments, says the company.
Roy is the new “King” of Schertler’s next generation acoustic amplifier series. Equipped with a 1” tweeter and two 8” woofers, the 400W, top-of-the-range, 7-channel combo amp forms a powerful yet portable stand-alone stage or studio amplification system for soloists and/or small groups.
Roy includes four input channels with various microphone / instrument combinations, inserts (as on a professional mixer), 3-band EQ and phantom power; an additional unbalanced instrument inpu

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UK - When Prolyte received a request for help from a theatre in Scotland, with some doubts as to how to build their new truss structure in a safe way, they jumped to the task. Prolyte organized a one-day on-site training to make sure the technical staff of the company can use their truss safely and efficiently whatever the project.
“Hi there, this is Adam from Scottish Dance Theatre. We have just bought a batch of H30V truss. After using it a couple of times, we now want to use it to build a tower system. I wonder if I could ask some questions…”
This was part of the request that Prolyte received through it’s website in late June this year. The Prolyte team knew this request could not go unanswered and decided to offer the assistance Adam was asking for. Together with distributing partner A.C. Entertainment Technologies, they set out to make an appointment for

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Belgium - AED Display and AV Stumpfl have organized a Wings Certified Operator Bootcamp from Monday 28 August until Friday 1 September 2017 at AED Studios, Lint (Belgium). The trainer will be Rainer Brandstätter, project manager & trainer AV Stumpfl.
Says Rainer, “On the first day of this five-day bootcamp we will tackle every aspect of setting up your show, starting with the physical installation and the troubleshooting of the system. On the second day we will learn more about the different modules (Wings / Vioso / Avio / Touch) and their capabilities.
“One by one we will introduce you to them and show you the basics which will allow you to explore them further on your own pace. This part will be mainly focused on the Wings software. Days three and four will include more advanced use of Wings and Avio. At this point you will dive into the Avio software and l
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