The Netherlands - Analog Way has announced that Perspective Layers feature will be natively available for any Ascender 32 - 4K early 2017. Showcased at ISE 2017 at booth #3-C95, this functionality allows the user to provide top-notch presentations through creation and animation of layers with virtual viewing perspective in real-time.

Already available for the Ascender 48 - 4K - PL and the LiveCore Output Expander 48 - 4K - PL, the Ascender 32 - 4K - PL will be natively equipped with this functionality as well. Developed by Analog Way, the exclusive Perspective Layers mode enables the manipulation of layers in a 3D space in order to give depth to any presentation.

More than a simple keystone effect, operators have the ability to change the layer position in the three dimensio

UK - The Natural History Museum hosted a New Year celebration for 600 revellers to make history and be part of the final event with the iconic Dippy the Diplodocus in the Hintze Hall.

The evening saw indulgent entertainment provided by Guilty Pleasures in the form of shamelessly delivered classic pop ballads whilst the Dinosaurs gallery formed a well themed break out space. Party food was delivered by approved supplier Benugo, whilst the production by Halo focused on lighting, staging and sound in the Hintze Hall.

The Hinzte Hall will now be closed until August as Dippy departs ready for a UK tour in 2018 and the installation of the dramatic diving Blue Whale skeleton commences. The museum's wealth of additional spaces are all still available providing the chance for events to be hosted in previously undiscovered locations.

Robert Wetherell, head of venue hire at Natur

USA - Born into a showbiz family, Pepe Aguilar has been performing from an early age and is today a flag-bearer for the Ranchera and Mariachi genres of Mexican traditional music.

The multiple Grammy award-winning star has had his stage shows lit by Ricardo Ortiz during the past year - with the LD dipping heavily into the catalogue of PR Lighting for his design solutions.

A veteran of some 15 years in the live concert, festival and touring business - particularly in his native Mexico - Ricardo and his partner, video director Hector Ortega, have kept the look of the production ever-changing as it has moved from venue to venue.

At the LA Forum recently, the full lighting rig was in play, including seven raked elements of truss, fanning outwards from upstage centre. Five of these extensions were terminated in large white claws, giving the rig the impression of a large cat'

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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

USA - In 2002, Parkview Church Orland Park, IL, moved into a new larger campus to accommodate its growing membership. At the time about 600 people attended Sunday services at the 54-year-old house of worship. Today well over 7,000 people come to the church or one of its two satellite campuses to worship every weekend.

There are many reasons why Parkview Christian, which is ranked by Outreach magazine as one of the 100 fastest growing churches in the US, has attracted so many new members. High on that list is its commitment to connect to worshippers with services that are relevant to modern sensibilities.

This commitment was very evident in Parkview Christian's well-attended Christmas service this year. Drawing over 20,000 people, the service touched hearts and souls with its warm, uplifting message, a communal candlelight observance, and contemporary praise music fe

China - DPA Microphones has strengthened its presence in China by launching a dedicated website that delivers product information, Microphone University articles, company news and content of specific relevance to the Chinese market in Chinese.

With a population of over 1.3bn and a growing demand for high end products to satisfy its burgeoning broadcast and pro audio industries, China is a key target for many manufacturers and DPA is no exception.

Ken Kimura, managing director of DPA's APAC Office, says, "China is a very important market for us, but its sheer size does make it challenging. To be successful in this market you need more than just great products - you also need to get closer to your customers by providing them with relevant information in their own language.

"Our new website will help us achieve this by making it easy for Chinese audio professionals to ide

USA - Country artist Granger Smith's 2016 touring exposed the rising artist to even larger audiences, and featured a lighting design by Sean Semler that included 12 High End Systems Shapeshifter C1s.

Lured away from another artist, Sean says "Granger's live performance and overall attitude was just infectious to me - and here I am today." As Smith is very 'hands-on' with programming ideas for his touring show, Semler explains, "Granger has a very creative mind, and likes to be a part of the brainstorming process. We'll bounce ideas off one another and design and program the show. I value this type of working relationship - I believe it ensures the probability of the wants and needs of the artist.

"When I first came on board, my PM and I discussed budget and options for a freshly designed lighting rig that would achieve looks not being utilized by the majority of touring gr

Belgium - Entertainment engineering specialists WIcreations has supplied several automation elements to help Belgian superstar rockers Clouseau ramp-up the drama and fun for their biennial end-of-year spectacular shows at the 20,000 capacity Antwerp Sportpaleis venue.

The band is in the middle of playing four sold-out shows that started in December and conclude in January - following an extensive theatre tour ongoing through most of the year to support their innovative and popular Clouseau Danst (Clouseau Dances) album.

WIcreations is collaborating closely with the show design team from Painting with Light to create some wow factors for the Sportpaleis shows.

These include a moving bridge in the middle of the audience with a 360 degree rotating arm which rises and cantilevers 15m across the audience, allowing Clouseau's charismatic lead singer Koen Wauters to tr

Denmark - Pascal A/S has announced a buyout of its minority shareholder Camco, by its Danish founding team. The buyout has been executed through a joint holding company, which is now sole owner of the company.

The buyout follows the acquisition of Camco by L-Group, the holding company for L-Acoustics. Pascal CEO and co-owner Lars Fenger explains, "The buyout of our minority shareholder allows us to continue as a fully independent OEM provider of amplifier solutions to the pro audio industry. As far as we are aware, we are the only OEM amplifier module provider solely focusing on the pro audio market, fully autonomous of potentially conflicting house branded product.

"We are thankful for the more than 10 years of collaboration with Camco, who today use our patented technology and designs in all of their Class-D based amplifiers," he adds.

Regarding the company's future

UK - John Young, former head of technical services at Ambassador Theatre Group, has partnered with Gallowglass Training to produce a 'Top 20' suite of training courses for on-site operational staff.

Taking up the role of head of training at Gallowglass Training, Young has compiled a suite of both statutory and technical skills training courses covering all levels of responsibility - from basic Manual Handling to the flagship IOSH Managing Safely four-day course for managers and supervisors.

A specialist trainer in venue and production management, Young has been leading the advisory group working towards the Creative Venue Technician Trailblazer apprenticeship framework, designed for budding technicians in the live performance and screen industries.

"There's been a surge in demand for training from companies wanting to upskill their people and ensure a safe working envi

USA - Red, green and blue have long been the foundational core colours of creative lighting. Laser lighting is no different, as laser diodes have produced red, green and blue hues for decades. As laser technology progresses, precision colour mixing and advanced optics yield stunning creative light designs, yet red, green and blue remain critical to any setup. That point was X-Laser USA's focus while developing the new Aurora Crimson, Aurora Emerald and Aurora Cobalt quad-aperture projectors.

"We know we created something special with the Aurora series in 2015, so we wanted to provide new Aurora fixtures that were still affordable, simple, safe and bright," Adam Raugh, president of X-Laser USA, said. "We decided to go with classic red, green and blue options because those colors are consistently the most used and most versatile."

The Aurora Crimson illuminates with 800mW of

USA - This year's NAMM Show offers musicians and engineers an opportunity to meet Arthur - Schertler's new modular mixer, which has its official North American premiere in Anaheim.

Designed for both live and studio use, Arthur is created from a choice of different Class-A input and output modules - Mic Input, Mic Input Ultra Low Noise and Mic Input x4 units, Yellow instrument input unit, Stereo Input unit, L/R Master, Aux Master and external Power-In units. These can be specified and assembled by the user (in any order and quantity) to form both compact and large-scale mixer configurations. Modules can be added, removed or re-ordered at any time to meet changing requirements.

The Schertler booth (#1282) will feature sample mixer configurations including a compact three-channel live set-up for solo vocals and guitar (with microphone/instrument inputs and L/R output). Used i

The Netherlands - WyreStorm has leveraged its switching expertise in the design of its first HDBaseT 4K UltraHD matrix switchers to include dedicated audio matrix switching. Both 16x16 (MX-1616-HDBT-H2X) and 10x10 (MX-1010-HDBT-H2X) models will be launched at ISE 2017.

The H2X Series of 4K Ultra HD matrix switchers was developed specifically for large, high-end residential and commercial applications requiring multi-source video distribution of the latest 4K HDR content as well as multi-source audio matrix switching to multiple zones.

Addressing the increase in mixed 4K/2K installations, WyreStorm's SmartEDID feature dynamically detects and reacts to display and source capabilities to output the highest possible resolution for each individual source. 4K-2K scaling and frameless switching is also available using the WyreStorm RX-70-4K-SCL HDBaseT scaling receiver also launc

Europe - Audio-Technica has extended the functionality of its ATUC-50 digital discussion system with the launch of the ATUC-50INT simultaneous interpretation unit. Designed for ease of use in situations where up to three languages are involved, the ATUC-50INT places control in the hands of interpreters thanks to the system's intuitive web remote-based conference management software application.

The unit's straightforward control panel allows easy selection of headphone volume level as well as the choice of floor or relayed language - and two ATUC-50INTs may be linked to deliver each language for hardware redundancy

Discussion participants can select between the three interpretation channels on their ATUC-50DU discussion units, or the languages can be transferred to an existing wireless language distribution system via the ATUC-50CU control unit. Multi-language discussion r

USA - Founded way back in 1865 as the First Baptist Church of Watertown, Wildwood Church predates the city it resides in - East Moline, Illinois - by nearly 40 years. Its deep history includes several different names and buildings, but that all settled down by 1980, when Wildwood moved into its current 600-seat sanctuary.

Although not original to the building, the church's most recent sound system was nevertheless very old and regularly imperilled services with the threat of feedback, complaints of unintelligibility, and uneven coverage (the front rows got their "hair ripped off" while the back rows asked for more volume!).

That's all changed with the installation of Danley Sound Labs loudspeakers and subwoofers, spurred by the realization that Danley was responsible for the sound quality at nearby Kinnick Stadium and confirmed by a direct A/B comparison of the old system

USA - Regarded nationally as the home of the American Musical, Goodspeed Musicals in East Haddam, Connecticut, has produced over 250 musicals throughout its illustrious history. In their current production of Chasing Rainbows, the production team asked Tony Award-winner Ken Billington to oversee the lighting design behind the inspirational musical about the real road to Oz.

Celebrating the story of theatre-darling Judy Garland from childhood to stardom, Billington needed lighting solutions that would allow him to create a powerful yet intimate environment inside the historic venue, and in his design, he chose PHX LED Profile Spots from Altman Lighting.

"To be honest, I was initially concerned that the fixture might not be bright enough, but that was not the case," began Billington. "The intensity of the PHX LED was exactly what I needed and they also provided me wit

UK - PRG XL Video, the UK operation of Production Resource Group (PRG), has announced a major investment in ultra-high brightness Panasonic laser projectors.

The new projectors continue the company's policy of investing in innovative new technology. The PT-RZ31K projectors offer a range of benefits over traditional projector technology. Traditional units average 1200 hours of use per lamp, whereas laser modules have a life of around 20,000 hours. The extended life, and subsequent reduction in maintenance make the units more efficient and cost effective to run.

The reduced heat output from the newer light source also means less cooling is required. Fan units in traditional projectors can be noisy, which is a major issue in theatres, galleries, and for corporate events, and so this efficiency makes the new laser models far quieter to operate than their counterparts.

Lase

USA - Country music sensation Chris Janson is taking Music City by storm, so when the time came to record live from the red carpet for the 50th Annual CMA Awards Red Carpet Show for AUDIENCE Network at famed Nashville honky tonk, he wanted the concert lighting to be extraordinary.

Lighting designer Victor Fable called upon Bandit Lites to supply lighting for the event which featured a full set of Janson's hits, including his famedBuy Me a Boat, which was named the Country Song of the Year by iHeartRadio Music Awards.

Bandit supplied Ayrton Magic Dots, Ayrton Magic Blades, Chauvet Freedom Pars, GLP Spot Ones, MAC Auras and two Grand MA 1 Lite consoles for control.

Four vertical trusses with ACL 360 bars provided the energetic lighting looks needed to match the energy of Janson's enthusiastic performance.

"That guy was on fire," said Bandit crew chief Andy Kni

USA - Typically gifts are exchanged on Christmas Day, but lighting designer Daniel Thibault received one of his best presents of the holiday season on New Year's Eve. Thibault of Life is Art Studios did the Disco Donnie Presents NYE show headlined by dubstep star Ookay at the Fillmore Charlotte.

"The Fillmore did a lighting upgrade this past fall and added a lot of Rogues," he said. "They're flown on the mid-stage and upstage truss. The way they're positioned, they wash out evenly from both truss positions to give you a crazy number of cool looks. I didn't need to rely on help from any floor package; with these Rogues I could immerse the whole stage in light. Ookay and the supporting artist Warez throw down some bold, quick-moving looks, so the intensity and the speed of the Rogues was much appreciated."

Thibault used 20 Rogue R1 Wash and six Rogue R1 Beam fixtures

Thailand - The new Hard Rock Cafe in Chiangmai, Thailand, recently opened its doors featuring an audio system designed and installed by One Systems Global. The company specified the Qu-16 digital rackmount mixer from Allen & Heath to manage all its audio requirements.

The mixer is installed in an AV rack along with the amp and Hard Rock audio server, located in a control room. The mixer controls playback audio sources and any live artists who will perform at the venue. The Qu is accompanied by a d&b audiotechnik PA system.

"Qu-16 is the ideal mixer for this type of venue, as it has enough capacity to manage a live music performance yet compact to store away, with flexible control options so that the user can connect to a wireless router and use the iPad app to mix from anywhere in the venue," explains One Systems Global's Mac.

(Jim Evans)

Europe - LD Luke Edwards is currently touring with Berlin-based Danish singer songwriter and keyboardist Agnes Obel.

The live touring campaign for the newly released Citizen of Glass, Obel's third album, started gently with a six-week bus-and-trailer tour around Europe.

Needing to make a serious visual impact with a few versatile lights that would take up minimal space, Luke specified six Robe DL4S LED Profiles and six of the new Spiider LED washbeams as a floor package, which packed down neatly for stowage in the trailer with the backline.

Positioned around Agnes and her four-piece band on a riser layout created by stage manager Wayne Chapelle, these 12 fixtures provided the bulk of the show lighting, augmented with elements from the different house rigs at each venue.

As quality and quantity of house rigs varied greatly along with the sizes of the venues f

USA - Grand Canyon University, located in Phoenix, Arizona, is on a mission to build 10 new sports venues in the next two years. They kicked off their 10-in-2 initiative with GCU Stadium, a state-of-the-art soccer stadium that boasts a new EAW QX sound reinforcement system designed and installed by Sound Image's Tempe, Arizona-based office.

"The president of the university really likes using audio to generate energy for the fans," explains Ben Davis, project manager, Sound Image. "He wants all of their sporting events to be high energy - the EAW QX system hit all of their check marks for what they wanted for the stadium."

After reviewing the University's public bid, Davis put together a design based on EAW QX loudspeakers that fit their criteria. He also included an EAW SB2001 subwoofer option for consideration now or in the future. The school was so impressed, they decide

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