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USA - The Daryl Hall and John Oates 2016 tour kicked off this year at New York's Madison Square Garden and will continue through the summer. Nashville-based Morris, in collaboration with famed designer Jesper Luth, provided the production and lighting design.

Featured in the design are 140 Solaris Mozart fixtures. "While these lights are small in scale, they make an incredible impact, encompassing both performers in light and creating a warm, asymmetrical backdrop for the show," says Jessica Charlton of Morris.

In January of this year, Morris provided lighting and audio for the 2016 NHL All-Star Weekend, where they first put the Mozarts to the test. The 2016 NHL All-Star Weekend's festivities were broadcast live, and the Mozarts performed well in the live show, while also lo

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USA / Europe - Leo Family systems kicked off Meyer Sound's 2016 summer festival season powering multi-day events at two major music festivals on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Boston Calling drew huge crowds to City Hall Plaza while BigCityBeats World Club Dome played out over 700,000sq.m in Frankfurt's Commerzbank Arena.

The outdoor, city-centre site for Boston Calling featured two Leo Family systems supporting artists such as Sia, Disclosure, Robyn, Sufjan Stevens, Janelle Monae, and Haim. The systems were provided by Atkinson, N.H.-based Rainbow Production Services.

"This was the first year we had the Leo Family on both stages, with Leo on the Blue Stage and Lyon on the smaller Red Stage," reports Scott Tkachuk, CTO and touring director for Rainbow. "That combination gave us a lot more control, which was critical as we were surrounded by 60-story buildings of concrete

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UK - A new state-of-the-art, 600 seat auditorium at Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall opened in October 2015 alongside the new Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO) Centre. Both were designed by Glasgow City Council's in-house team of architects led by Kerr Robertson - also responsible for city projects such as the refurbishment of much lauded Glasgow City Halls - and world-renowned acoustic specialists ARUP.

The new auditorium at Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall exhibits a number of design features implemented to optimise the acoustic qualities of the venue, for both rehearsal and performance situations. Fixed sound absorption is distributed throughout the hall, controlling excessive loudness whilst also reducing reverberance. The large scale (risers, ceiling and upper wall elements) and small scale (lower side walls) articulation throughout the hall scatters sound at different fre

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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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Belgium - The fifth season of the Voice van Vlaanderan (Voice of Flanders) was staged in Hall 8 of the Ghent Expo centre, a massive complex on the outskirts of the picturesque Belgian city - with show design once again delivered by a team from design practice Arf & Yes, led by company owner and founder, Ignace D'Haese.

Arf & Yes provided the full show and venue technical design package for producers Endemol, including stage, set, lighting and video, plus the layout accommodating a large main performance stage and 3000 live audience, taking full advantage of all the available space.

The lighting rig included 86 x Robe moving lights - 52 x Pointes, 30 LEDWash 800s and four LEDWash 300s, which, together with other lights enabled Ignace and his team including lighting programmer / operator Timothy De Mets to create a versatile show environment.

Onstage were three massive L

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UK - Lighting and visuals rental company Colour Sound Experiment celebrated 10 years of being a main technical supplier to Field Day - one of London's premier and most popular urban music events, staged in Victoria Park, Hackney.

"We are all extremely proud of that achievement," commented Colour Sound's MD Haydn Cruickshank (H), "and in that time have seen the event develop and diversify, all the time retaining its unique approach to music programming and its emphasis on delivering the highest production values to its audiences."

Working for LarMac LIVE, contracted by producers Loud Sound Events to co-ordinate all the technical elements of the event, Colour Sound supplied lighting to the nine largest performance areas (out of 12), and LED screens to five of these performance spaces.

Around 140 moving lights plus generics, control and all the LED screens filled three ar

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South Africa - Lighting designer and consultant, Denis Hutchinson, was loaned six Robert Juliat Dalis 300W LED Cyclights by DWR Distribution to 'test drive' on the musical Sophiatown which played at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg and at the State Theatre in Pretoria.

In South African history Sophiatown, apart from violence and poverty, was the renowned "mixed suburb" in the days of Apartheid, affectionately remembered for the lively politics, music, jazz and blues. It was where people lived together, undivided by colour, before the authorities tore it apart. Sophiatown, the musical production, played tribute to this society and also formed part of the Market Theatre's 40th birthday celebrations.

"Initially I wasn't quite sure how I was going to use the Dalis units on the show because they're cyc lights and I didn't have a cyc," commented Denis. "But I was

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Canada - Montreal's 22nd Bal en Blanc, Canada's oldest electronic music festival and one of the first EDM festivals in the world, featured an exclusive attraction by 45DEGREES, Cirque du Soleil's events and special projects company. Five Cirque acts performing during the Sultan+Shepard set were lit by an array of Clay Paky fixtures provided by 4U2C.

Held on Easter weekend at the Palais du congres, the Bal en Blanc was produced by Produkt with One Drop as its official cause partner. One Drop is a Montreal-based non-profit, created by Cirque founder Guy Laliberte, whose mission is to provide safe water to communities worldwide. 45DEGREES staged its "One Drop Moment" to showcase this collaboration and provide a taste of what's to come as the partnership continues with Bal en Blanc 2017.

"The challenge was to create a unique Cirque moment during a big EDM show with a live VJ a

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UK - This year's Exmouth Festival saw the UK debut of Proel's new Axiom AX800A compact line array, used for the very first time at a live event after the first units of the new product began shipping this month.

ESW Solutions had the timely opportunity to test the new AX800A system at the Exmouth Festival with one of its most experienced sound engineers Darren Campan and overseen by senior project manager Richard Hawkins.

ESW Solutions works on over 500 events a year and as the company looks to expand its business further, it is continually on the lookout for cost-effective, quality equipment to add to rental stock that will improve live event experiences. So when Proel's Mike Roissetter offered a product demonstration system for the festival, ESW's managing director Martin Nicholls was more than happy to trial it.

The AX800A is Proel's newest line array product, addin

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USA - The 2016 Behind the Scenes Holiday Cards are on sale now. Three card ordering options are offered: personalized cards with a company logo and custom message, card packs of 10 with a standard greeting, and electronic versions for delivery by email. Orders will be taken until September 12, 2016 to arrive by late October.

All proceeds benefit the Behind the Scenes charity which provides financial assistance to entertainment technology professionals who are seriously ill or injured. View and order cards at www.behindthescenescharity.org/holidaycards. For more information, please contact 212-244-1421 or holidaycard@behindthescenescharity.org.

For the last several years, the BTS Holiday Cards have included a design by a student at the Fine Arts Academy at Mt. Vernon Senior High School in Mount Vernon, Indiana. The student designs have proven to be so popular that this year

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USA - Maryland is known for its beautiful beaches, splendid shellfish and rich nautical history. In recent years, however, another item has been added to this notable list, as the 'Old Line State', the place that gave birth to the US National Anthem, is becoming known as an epicentre of metal music.

Every Memorial Day Weekend, the state hosts Maryland Deathfest (popularly known as MDF), the country's largest metal music festival. This year, the 14th annual edition of the festival, drew black leather clad metal fans from around the world to downtown Baltimore to see bands like Venom, Testament and Mayhem perform on a main stage that featured a blisteringly intense light show anchored by Rogue R2 Washes and Strike 4 multi-formatted warm white LED fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

Zack Bunner, lighting designer at Showtime Sound (Frederick, Maryland), selected the fixtures

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Australia - Elite Sound and Lighting based in the Australian capital Canberra is one of the country's fastest growing rental and production companies. Headed by owner and founder Darren Russell, Elite made its first Robe investment in 2011 and in 2013, Darren made the conscious commitment to Robe as their 'house' moving light brand. "I simply wanted a premium brand that was reliable and had a diverse enough range to cover all requirements for rental, staging and installation applications."

The purchases have been constant and steady since that time, and they were the first in Australia to purchase Robe's signature BMFL series, with 32 x BMFL Spots joining the rental inventory as soon as they became available.

The latest BMFL WashBeams were then added to that count at the end of 2015.

More LEDWash 600s have also recently been added to the inventory - in fact, every time

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UK - The Association of British Theatre Technicians Theatre Awards 2016 took place on Wednesday evening (22 June), after the first day of the ABTT Theatre Show at Alexandra Palace, London.

An experienced jury of working practitioners and industry peers considered entries for the ABTT Awards. Both previously submitted nominations and items brought to their attention on the day, which satisfied the entry criteria were reviewed.

Commenting on the event, ABTT CEO Robin Townley said, "The Awards ceremony, held in the Petrus Bertschinger Studio (PBS), was again a great opportunity for exhibitors and visitors to gather and celebrate good technology and excellent technical practice. It was also very good to be able to welcome the Association of Lighting Designers' for the presentation of their Bursaries.

"There was a great atmosphere in the PBS which clearly conveyed the congr

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UK - PLASA 2016 has announced the line-up for its ever popular Rigging Conference, which this year is supported by Unusual Rigging as Platinum sponsor. The conference is being curated for the seventh year running by Total Solutions' Chris Higgs, with a keynote presentation by Rocky Paulson, founder of Stage Rigging Inc.

Held on the first day of the PLASA Show (London Olympia, 18-20 September), this unique conference looks at the issues that are specific to rigging for the entertainment industry and regularly attracts over 150 practitioners, managers, engineers, safety professionals and policy makers from around the globe. "With 30% of its delegates attending from 20 different overseas countries, it has a truly international flavour," say organisers PLASA Events.

During Rocky's keynote presentation, he will talk about his career as a rigger and the influences from his early

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France - Belonging to Ayrton's new 'RS' product line, AlienPix-RS is a conceptual, multi-rotational fixture that combines a multiplicity of effects within a single luminaire. Inspired by fixtures from the '70s and '80s, AlienPix-RS is a reinterpretation which uses modern technology, optics and LED sources to "create revolutionary new volumetric 3D effects".

AlienPix-RS is formed of five spot heads surrounding a central disk, each of which contains a tight, 3.5° RGBW LED emitter. Each emitter has a centre-beam luminous intensity of over 180 candelas per lumen and can be controlled individually. The five surrounding spot heads can each tilt continuously as the main saucer with central emitter pans, tilts and rotates in any direction. Powerful tri-phase stepper motors allow fast, accurate and silent positioning. In total AlienPix-RS can simultaneously perform up to eight mult

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USA - Describing his five years as FOH engineer for ZZ Top, Joe Keiser calls it "The never-ending tour - they work harder than any other band I know". The group's 2016 season began in March, playing arenas and large theatres across North America.

Dubbed the Hell Raisers tour, the group decided to travel light, renting a sound system at each venue, exposing Keiser to a wide variety of products. One that stood out for both its sound quality and ease of use was the Electro-Voice X2 line-array loudspeaker system supplied by NLFX Professional for the tour's date at the Sanford Centre in Bemidji, Minnesota. The X2 is the high-performance member of the new Electro-Voice X-Line Advance family.

"That is one show that stands out for me as trouble-free," recalls Keiser. "I remember walking in and thinking the system looked small for a sold-out arena show, but once I powered up and di

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UK - Event lighting designer John McGuinness of Just Lite Productions chose a carefully tuned mix of Avolites products; Sapphire Touch, Tiger Touch II and Fader Wing, Quartz, Ai Infinity media server and ART2000 48" Dimmer racks, to control his erising show design for legendary dance event Cream Tours at Belfast's T13 warehouse.

Event promoter Notorious Parties welcomed the return of the event with its cast of DJing elite including; dance music giant John O'Callaghan, Bryan Kearney, Will Atkinson, STANDERWICK, Agnelli and Nelson and Anthony Probyn.

McGuinness, who put his Avolites Sapphire Touch console, featuring Titan Version 9, to work says, "The great thing about the Sapphire Touch is it's very simple and fast to programme and I can achieve the looks I want in seconds. I am a huge fan of the Key Frame Shapes feature - it adds another dimension to what I can create, tur

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Germany - Full service production company satis&fy provided the entertainment technology and decorative atmosphere for the 2016 Duftstars Awards in Berlin, the German perfume industry's premier accolade, and used their new stock of Elation Professional Platinum FLX hybrid moving heads on the event.

The Fragrance Foundation of Germany announced the winners of the awards at a presentation ceremony held on 12 May at Kraftwerk Berlin. Held under the motto 'The Power of Fragrance!' and actually one of the top galas in the German-speaking world, personalities from German TV, film, business, politics and the media walked the purple carpet with a dinner and after-show party music by Culcha Candela.

satis&fy equipped the awards ceremony as technical service provider for event company Vaterblut GmbH. On the ground floor, satis&fy rolled out 1,000sq.m of purple carpet and set up a 12

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Spain - La 57, a modern nightclub in Valencia recently upped its sound game with the installation of a brand-new D.A.S. Audio professional sound system. La 57 is the city's biggest Latin music club and has quickly turned into a hotspot for both the locals who love salsa, bachata, merengue and mambo music and the large South American community living in Valencia.

The venue owners called in Telesonic Valencia to design a new sound system that would offer the club's guests top-of-the-line sound quality. Francisco Planells, a local sound professional whose extensive experience in projects at a range of venues makes him well acquainted with the qualities of D.A.S. professional sound systems, headed the project.

Because La 57 serves a dual purpose -the space is dedicated to dance classes in the mornings and afternoons and turns into a nightclub at night and on weekends- a versat

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Italy - Electropop artist, Francesco Gabbani, recently took Allen & Heath's ultra-compact Qu-Pac digital mixer on tour, selected by FOH engineer, Fabrizio Fruzzetti.

Gabbani is a singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, and recently released his award-winning second studio album, Eternamente Ora, which includes the hit single, Amen. The tour supports the album release and includes dates across the country.

Fruzzetti is sound engineer for many top artists and festivals in Italy, including Primavera Jazz Festival, Stadio, Dolcenera, Nina Zilli, Grignani, and has managed sound for several TV commercials.

"Qu-Pac is a great mixer offering dynamic management control options, which can be accessed via the iPad app or the mixer's touchscreen. This enables very fast operation, and the possibility to include several operators or places, such as monitor or FOH

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South Africa - After a successful inaugural event in 2015, the SA Guitar and Music Instruments Expo returns in 2016 at the Wanderers Club in Johannesburg.

Wild & Marr, one of South Africa's leading importers and distributors of professional sound equipment will be exhibiting at this year's Expo.

"A number of our brands have products that are well suited for retailers and people interested in pursuing a career in music," says Andrew Sorrill, marketing manager at Wild & Marr. "We will be showcasing some of these products that are perfect for guitarists, musicians and those interested in doing home recordings and podcasts. We encourage you to come hear, play, buy or try the latest and greatest gear that we have to offer."

Wild & Marr will have some demonstrations and performances by artists at their stand, which will be situated in the Wanderers Ballroom at Stand F.

T

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USA - High End Systems' Hog Factor 2016 competition is open for enrolment to all qualifying college and university students, and Phase One of the contest will close on 30 June 2016.

All information, rules and most importantly the programming package can be obtained by going to www.highend.com/hogfactor. Just as in the inaugural 2015 competition, all students are able to take part by downloading Hog 4 PC and the special Light Converse show file by registering at the above link, and there is no charge for participation.

Following Phase 1 of the competition, three teams will be whisked away to the Live Finals, slated to be held on Friday, 21 October at 5pm on the High End Systems booth at LDI in Las Vegas. The finalists will compete to win a $20,000 scholarship and Hog 4 for their University as well as each a HedgeHog 4X for themselves.

(Jim Evans)

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