UK - HD Pro Audio has announced its appointment as UK main dealer for SGAudio Aps' 10EaZy sound level measurement system, designed for the live sound and entertainment industries.

Andy Huffer, sales director of HD Pro Audio commented, "We see great potential in the touring and installed live sound market for 10EaZy, as an essential tool for both engineers and venues to keep them on the right side of noise regulations. Noise complaints have been identified by many as one of the primary threats to music and performance venues of all shapes and sizes, so to invest in an easy-to-manage way of monitoring SPL and liaise with the local authorities can only be a positive move."

Huffer continued, "10EaZy is already in use at some major UK venues such as the Royal Albert Hall and Unio

Slovenia - Ljubljana Castle - a top tourist attraction in the Slovenian capital - has added more Robes to its lighting inventory with the purchase of CycFX 8s, LEDBeam 100s and six Robe LightWare HO battery powered up-lighting LED units, complete with integrated charging case.

The Castle sits majestically above the city and defines the skyline. Originally the site of a medieval fortress, its present outline dates back to the 15th century with the majority of the current buildings constructed during the 16 and 17th centuries.

In addition to being a place of great historical interest - it's also a busy event space with several stunningly converted spaces tastefully mixing historical and contemporary architecture. Its multiple venues are used for an eclectic mix of conferences, meetings, presentations as well as theatre and music productions. A new small theatre has just been

Germany - More than 60 Clay Paky Sharpys were perfectly programmed to create a 'light orchestra' which interactively illuminated the Fraunhofer award ceremony. The achievement recently won LD Bj
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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

UK - The Theatres Trust celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2016 with a new strategy and visual identity that sets us on a new chapter - championing the past, present and future of live theatre by protecting the buildings and what goes on inside.

At PLASA Focus Leeds, the organisation will be holding a seminar Theatres Trust 40 on 11 May at 2.15pm, where show visitors are invited to join discuss "what we need to be doing today to protect theatres for live theatre tomorrow". The Trust explains, "Throughout PLASA you will also be able to find out how we can help you with advice on planning and development, resources to make theatres sustainable, and financial assistance through grants, and hear about our latest work with theatres at risk."

The discussion and debate from Theatres Trust 40 will be developed at Conference 16: Protecting Theatres on the 21 June at the New London

UK - Opening in three weeks, PLASA Focus Leeds 2016 will welcome the latest products recently launched in live entertainment technology from 10 - 11 May. Robe, Avolites, Triple E and Pioneer Pro Audio will join over 175 brands showcasing their new technical solutions for the live entertainment industry.

After recently launching a variety of new and innovative lighting products, Platinum Sponsor Robe, returns to Leeds with its new Spikie, a super-fast LED WashBeam, on stand N-B30. The fixture produces sharp, multi-coloured spikes of light, rotating in both directions at variable speed, while a unique beam effect engine transforms the output into three piercing narrow beams. It has continuous pan and tilt rotation and weighs only 5.5 Kgs.

State-of-the-art professional audio solutions will also be on offer, including the recently launched XPRS Series from Pioneer Pro Audio on

UK - The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (Central) and the Unicorn Theatre have announced the establishment of a memorial fund in honour of the late Petrus Bertschinger. At the request of Petrus's family, donations are being sought for The Captain's Fund which will be split between the Unicorn Theatre and Central's Technical and Production Management or Stage Management courses.

Petrus Bertschinger (1961 - 2015) was a long-standing member of the Central community from his time as a student in the 1980s to his most recent role as Senior Lecturer in Technical and Production Management at the School. Petrus graduated from Central in 1984 and had 32 years professional experience as a stage manager, production manager and theatre consultant including Production Manager for Matthew Bourne's Adventures in Motion Pictures. He also spent ten years with the Unicorn Theatre, fir

Germany - Track systems specialist Triple E is celebrating its successful launch of ModTruss in Europe at Prolight + Sound, Frankfurt.

The Triple E team constructed an iimpressive stand at the Messe Frankfurt for the event, showcasing the versatility of the ModTruss product line, which lends itself to endless configurations using standard accessories, ensuring ideas that once took extensive custom design and fabrication are constructed easily and fast.

Triple E launched the US-designed ModTruss in the UK in June 2015, immediately winning 'Engineering Product of the Year' at the ABTT Theatre Show in London.

"This year's Prolight + Sound marked a milestone in the history - and future - of Triple E as we undertook the biggest launch for our company yet - ModTruss, Europe-wide," says Triple E's managing director, David Edelstein. "We've put in a lot of hard work to bring t

China / Germany - PR Lighting's new hybrid BWS (Beam Wash Spot) hybrid attracted much interest at the recent GET Show in Guangzhou and Frankfurt Prolight+Sound, two of the global production industry's major shop windows.

The Chinese manufacturer has wasted no time in capitalising on these lightshow extravaganzas, and has followed up last year's XR 330 BWS release with the new XR 440 BWS, which is now shipping.

This new range of high-output moving heads integrates three features in one unit, and adopts PR patented technology.

The XR 440 BWS houses a powerful Osram Sirius HRI 440W lamp, and features include an advanced colour index with CYM linear colour mixing system, with macro; colour wheel with 12 colours and CTO plus open; bi-directional rainbow effect at variable speeds; step/linear colour change.

There is a fixed gobo wheel with 13 fixed gobos plus open, bi-di

Germany - The Shure KSM8 Dualdyne Vocal Microphone introduced this January was awarded the pipa award in the category Live Microphone / IEM. The ceremony took place during the 2016 Prolight+Sound / Musikmesse in Frankfurt on 7 April.

Ron Hautzinger, product manager pro & retail at Shure Europe says, "With the KSM8, Shure set out to develop a microphone that turns the world of dynamic microphones upside down. Offering a brand-new patented cartridge design with two diaphragms, the KSM8 has virtually no proximity effect and a flat off-axis attenuation for superior rejection of unwanted sound sources. We are honoured to receive the pipa and would like to thank all voters."

(Jim Evans)

Germany - Laserworld Showeditor FREE was presented at prolight+sound 2016 for the first time. It is a free ILDA laser show control software, that incorporates the utmost features of the Laserworld Showeditor full version except the direct output to a hardware interface. It can be used for creating logos, text, animations and aerial effects and exporting them to the standard *.ild file format. This file format is compatible to all ILDA standard SD-card playback systems for show laser lights, so the Laserworld Showeditor FREE can be used with SD-card lasers of almost any brand.

Laser show playback systems are useful for many different applications: DJs may not want to directly control their laser with a computer during their set, as they obviously need to concentrate on that. So they often decide to have an automated show playing or control the lasers via DMX, together with the

UK - RCF UK will present several of the innovations that lit up the company's international stand at Frankfurt Prolight+Sound recently, when they arrive at this year's PLASA Focus (Leeds Royal Armouries Museum, 10-11 May).

Occupying stand #N-D20 the showcase will include the following:

HDL6-A: The new mini-format entry to the composite D-Line line array series, this active 2-way powered system is partnered by the HDL6-AS sub. Housing double 6.5" bass drivers the HDL6-A is run in combination with 1.75" compression driver with a 2" voice coil on a 10° x 100° waveguide. The HDL 6-AS is a 12" bass reflex enclosure, designed to be flown with the full range system.

HDL50-A: At the other end of the spectrum, this large-format, three-way active line array module is the flagship of the D-Line range and contains 2 x 12" bass drivers, 4 x 6.5" mid-range and 2 x 3" compres

UK - PLASA Focus Leeds has become something of an annual highlight for team GB at d&b audiotechnik - a chance to welcome new faces, catch up with the local pro audio community, and regionally introduce all the latest international product launches.

From 10-11 May at the Royal Armouries Museum stand no. N-A24 will make things simple, with mobile products on one side and installation solutions on the other. In the mobile corner, the award winning V-Series point sources will make their Leeds debut, plus both the line array optimization tool, d&b ArrayProcessing, and the R1 Remote control software will be available to demo. And for anyone who's not yet heard about d&b NoizCalc - the far field noise immission modelling software - there'll be opportunity to see it in action, virtually of course.

Premiering on the installation side will be the two four channel installation specif

UK - West Midlands UK based production and live video specialist Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) delivered a stunning wid, escreen projection system plus lighting and sound production for Big Day Out an event for ITV Commercial sales teams staged at Heythrop Park in Oxfordshire.

A series of motivational talks and presentations, interspersed with choreographed entertainment and magicians, took place in the venue's lecture Theatre for which CPL supplied a 12m wide by 4m high projection screen, fed by Panasonic 12K laser projectors.

This was installed by a CPL crew project managed for CPL by Lee Gruszeckyj and Liam Griffiths. The three projectors were flown side-by-side in the roof and controlled via a Barco E2 management system.

The client's brief was that they wanted a large digital backdrop to help provide an 'immersive' experience for their staff.

Using the

Sweden - Two Allen & Heath dLive digital mixing systems managed the recent two-month run of Green Day's stage show, American Idiot, at Cirkus Theatre in Stockholm.

Parashoot PA was appointed to manage the sound, selecting S7000 Control Surface and DM64 MixRack at both FOH and monitors, and a ME system for personal monitors, from its hire stock.

"I wasn't sure at first when the producer asked me to design and engineer the show as we are a touring PA company but he was adamant that the show was about capturing the Green Day sound and attitude," explains Parashoot's Oscar S

World - Muse is the latest band to benefit from Mojo Barriers' specially-designed touring barrier as 160m of the system keeps crowds safe throughout The Drones World Tour.

Mojo Barriers was contracted to ensure audience and artist safety at all the US and European dates of Muse's nine-month tour. Mojo supplied 160m of barrier, ADA and heavy duty cable ramps along with custom designed Double Flex Corners to allow the Muse production team to pass cabling under the barriers safely.

Mojo's JB Dolphin and John Wagoner oversaw all 27 Mexican and North American dates, whilst Stanley Jilesen oversaw the 50 shows in Europe. Muse played in the round, with a circular stage in the middle with two catwalks at either end. To compliment the unique stage layout, Mojo's Vario Corners were widely used to work with the contours of the stage. The tour has been celebrated for its use of the la

USA - Beach Park in Florida's famous spring break city is 893 miles from Ryman Auditorium, birthplace of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. But for three days this April, the eyes of the country music world were on Fort Lauderdale, as the Tortuga Music Festival welcomed stars like Blake Shelton, Tim McGraw, Sam Hunt, Thomas Rhett, Kip Moore and others to its three stages.

Being on the ocean, Tortuga treated 90,000 fans (from 47 states and 16 countries, according to organizers) to a tropical escape as well as music. Contributing to the mood was a collection of Caribbean-inspired lounges and meeting places bathed in appropriately lush evocative colours by a collection of COLORado fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

Abbas Ritscher of The Design Oasis positioned over 200 COLORado fixtures throughout the festival grounds, relying on their color rendering capabilities to accent a

Germany -Andreas Bourani is currently out on an arena tour of Germany in support of his latest album HEY, with a slick and stylish lighting design by Nik Evers using Clay Paky Mythos and A.leda B-EYE K20 fixtures.

Evers - who also designed the staging and video content alongside Timo Marten and Philip Hillers - has specified the highly advanced hybrid light Mythos and the LED wash and effects light B-EYE from Black Box Music.

Positioned on the floor of the B-stage surrounding Bourani and the band, Evers is employing the sharp and precise beams of the Mythos to create a range of beat-perfect looks.

"The Mythos are really powerful which is ideal for this show," he explains. "as their power means their beams stay incredibly bright even when using colour," he explains.

Evers' design is based on the Andreas Bourani logo and sees the main stage at a 45° angle

UK - Technical event production expert Hawthorn has seen significant expansion in its supply to the touring theatre sector, with an impressive 90% increase in business over the last six months.

Seven productions are currently out on the road, all using lighting or video kit supplied by the technical production expert's hire service. These include supporting renowned lighting designer, Philip Gladwell on a number of touring theatre productions; the National Theatre of Scotland's highly acclaimed The James Plays, Hairspray and Jackie the Musical.

Other productions currently using Hawthorn's lighting kit include The Ladyboys of Bangkok, Laila the Musical, Clybourne Park and English Touring Theatre's Brideshead Revisited.

David Slater, head of hire at Hawthorn, said, "The last six months have seen fantastic growth in our sup

Ireland - Rental and production specialist Just Lite delivered full technical production, including lighting equipment and design, for BAMMA 24 working for production manager Sven Knight and his team from KRS.

The mixed martial arts tournament was staged in 3 Arena, Dublin, and broadcast live on Spike (UK) Channel 5 in the UK and Ireland, ESPN 3 in the US plus numerous others worldwide as well as streamed live via main sponsor Lonsdale's Facebook.

The Just Lite team, led by John McGuinness and working closely with LD Andrew Harris had to light the action for camera as well as the charged large live audience packed into 3 Arena, which they did with the help of over 70 Robe moving lights - a combination of BMFL Spots, Pointes, ColorWash 1200E ATs and LEDBeam 100s.

The lighting design for this BAMMA event was developed by John and Andrew - the lighting operator for the la

World - Iron Maiden is relying on a Meyer Sound Leo Family loudspeaker system to power its successful Book of Souls World Tour. The band's high-octane performances have been filling arenas around the world since the six-month, 35-country tour began in February. FOH engineer Martin Walker chose the Leo Family to ensure maximum power and clarity for Iron Maiden after mixing Judas Priest's 2014-2015 world tour on the system.

"Leo's clarity and headroom help out a great deal when it comes to balancing the mix," reports Walker. "Iron Maiden has three guitars, vocals, and occasional keyboards all vying for the same frequency bands in the mix. With LEO, the clarity cuts right through. That also allows me to mix louder than before."

Walker notes that the band has been pleased with audience reactions to the sound, and appreciates the directed sound of the 1100-LFC low-frequency con

UK - PRS for Music Foundation, in association with Wigwam Acoustics and the Musicians' Union has announced the four winners in the latest Flash Funding opportunity which offers them each bespoke monitoring and touring support to advance their live career.

The four artists being supported are: April Towers (Nottingham - to support European and UK dates in May, June and July), False Advertising (Manchester - to support upcoming UK dates in April and May), Flight Brigade (London - to support tours and festivals across the UK) and John Joseph Brill (Liverpool - to help with upcoming UK dates)'

PRS for Music Foundation, Wigwam Acoustics and Musicians' Union have teamed up for this second edition of Flash Funding to pool resources and knowledge, and give these four artists access to bespoke monitoring packages (such as in-ear monitoring, microphones, control systems) worth up to

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