Ireland - Designed to renew and inspire Irish theatre, film and television, The Lir Academy opened in 2011 with a vision to become a centre of excellence for the dramatic arts in Ireland. Developed with collaboration from the Cathal Ryan Trust, and in association with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA), The Lir offers first-rate training for the theatre and related professions. This year, the institution has turned its attention to updating its curriculum for technical theatre and lighting design students, leading to a partnership with ETC.

For several years, ETC's Playhouse at Gypsy Corner has been the education hub for the UK and Ireland, necessitating trips to London for Ireland-based technicians wanting to undertake ETC training. In recognition of ETC and The Lir's mu

Germany - The Scorpions were formed in Sarstedt, in 1965, by guitarist Rudolf Schenker and drummer Wolfgang Dziony. During the decades that followed, the band made history: 18 albums, lengthy list of awards and innumerable tours, which have taken the Scorpions all over the world. Today the group has embarked upon its latest world tour.

Roland Beckerle is the tour production manager and Olaf Schr

Germany - In their high-quality Epilogue series Sommer Cable has integrated both audiophile and technical qualities. The outcome is a reference cable for uptown tastes. The Baden-Wurttemberg specialist for professional cable and connection technology recommends the Epilogue series for linking pre and power amplifiers, CD and SACD players, turntables and also for professional studio technology.

"The cables of the Epilogue series excel by a neutral, pure and at the same time spatial sound image which is due to a highly sophisticated workmanship and up-market wiring. And all that with a convincing price-performance ratio," explains Pascal Miguet, product & sales manager at Sommer Cable.

Technically the Epilogue series relies on a quad-wire design with crossover capability. A tight copper braid with semiconductor provides 100 % shielding against interferences. Together with th

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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 - Allen & Heath has introduced several key additions to its flagship dLive digital mixing system, with the launch of the IP6 and IP8 fully-configurable and networkable remote controllers, and the Waves V3 and gigaACE audio networking cards.

The IP6 and IP8 are next generation remote controllers for dLive, widening the system's flexibility in installations and live sound. They interface with the dLive mixing system via standard TCP/IP connections and can be networked with other controllers, computers and third party devices using a standard Ethernet infrastructure.

The IP6 provides 6 push 'n turn rotary encoders and colour LCD displays, 19 programmable soft keys, and mic stand mounting options. The IP8 provides 8 motorised faders and colour LCD displays, and 23 programmable soft keys. Both can be configured with up to 6 layers for access to a large number of channels. Th

USA - Chauvet Professional introduced its Maverick series at Prolight + Sound this year. The new series features three power-packed tour ready moving fixtures: the MK2 Wash, MK1 Hybrid and MK2 Spot. These fixtures offer a host of performance features including the integration of a W-DMX receiver card in every Maverick unit fitted as standard out of the factory.

"We set out to make a statement with Maverick," said Albert Chauvet, CEO of Chauvet, "Including W-DMX underscores our commitment to putting our customers first, because of its convenience, reliability, and speed of setup. We have had great success with W-DMX in our fixtures since we launched our original WELL fixtures in 2011. Since then, Wireless Solution has been the exclusive wireless DMX provider for Chauvet Professional."

Niclas Arvidsson, CEO of Wireless Solution also expressed enthusiasm for the OEM relations

China - Nearly 30 years ago Cui Jian, the 'Father of Chinese Rock, performed Nothing To My Name during a concert at Beijing Workers' Stadium. That song launched a cultural music movement that celebrated its 30-year anniversary with the Music Power Rock China 30 tour, recently launched at the same location.

An Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW) Adaptive Performance system - manned by FOH engineer Jim Ebdon - was on hand to reinforce the notable occasion.

"The arena is an older, round building made up of concrete, glass and metal," explains Ebdon. "There was a festival-like stage set up in one end of the floor, which cut down on available floor space and limited seating to almost half of the arena. Our job was to cover the fans with the best music experience possible, which meant keeping the sound off of the walls and ceiling."

Ebdon - whose FOH engineering resume inclu

UK - The Enteetainment team led by Amy Harmsworth assisted by Frankie Tee have recently delivered yet another successful season of the Rochester Castle Concerts on behalf of Medway Council.

The historic Castle Gardens played host to performances from Status Quo supported by Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel, Will Young supported by Gabrielle, and the 'Soul Legends' show with Angelo Starr and the Team and featuring special guests Gwen Dickey of Rose Royce fame, Clem Curtis from the Foundations, Jimmy James ex of the Vagabonds and George McCrae.

Saturday night saw a very special Military Proms celebrating Sapper 300. An informal brass band was first established in 1836 by the Royal Sappers and Miners and music has been a major part of military life for centuries and over the years the Royal Engineers have been privileged to enjoy the work of some outstanding musicians. The conc

USA - The nightclub 1015 Folsom in San Francisco recently underwent a massive remodel to commemorate its upcoming 30-year anniversary.

The vast 20,000sq.ft venue is one of the longest running EDM nightclubs on the West Coast of America and is known for hosting big headliners. And with huge acts scheduled for Super Bowl 50 weekend, 1015 Folsom owner, Ira Sandler, got a jump-start on the renovations. He called on Eric Bernstein of Intelligent Lighting Services in Austin, TX once again to upgrade the club's lighting and video system with gear from Mega Systems Inc., the PR Lighting distributor in USA.

Bernstein kicked off the project by taking Sandler and his technical director Scot Peterson to the LDI Show last November. There they determined the new equipment that would be used in the nightclub.

Above the stage in the main room, Bernstein installed a number of LED displ

France - DuShow is a high profile French technical production company headquartered in a purpose built office and warehouse facility near to Charles de Gaulle airport (CDG) in Roissy just outside Paris - and a stone's throw from Robe's French subsidiary, Robe lighting France SAS.

DuShow is the result of the fusion of three different French market leaders - Caméléon, Arp

UK - London nightclub fabric turned to the winning combination of Pioneer Pro Audio and Powersoft to assemble the sound system for its first-ever outdoor event, Lovebox Festival. Taking place on 15-16 July in London's Victoria Park, the fabric stage is the only stage at Lovebox to commission an exclusive pro audio partner.

The fabric arena is a 2000-capacity, 38m round tent designed to recreate fabric's Room One, giving party-goers the true nightclub experience in a festival environment.

Powersoft's Class D switch-mode K Series was again been adopted by Pioneer pro audio manager, Alex Barrand, to deliver the high octane feeds to their 4 x 3m GS-WAVE dancefloor surround stacks, eight XY-218 18-inch twin bass reflex subwoofers and 12 XY-122 12-inch two-way loudspeakers. But in addition, it took advantage of the Italian company's Armon

Germany - From 1-3 July, the city of Neu-Isenburg again became the music capital of the state of Hesse. Spanning three festival days, approximately 60 bands performed across 16 stages in the Huguenot city - and were cheered on by 35,000+ visitors.

Also on stage were Adam Hall Group's newest brand of stands - Gravity. Exclusively deployed across the festival's three main stages, Gravity stands have won the internationally-recognized Red Dot and IF Design awards, while being recently nominated for the German Design Award.

"For such a festival, it's important that the equipment meets the expectations right from the start. The Gravity stands have even exceeded these. Whether it's about stability or an attractive price-performance ratio with design to boot, Gravity convinced us in every aspect," said Michael Kercher, managing director of 12 L

Germany - For most people, reggae conjures up images of beaches, palm trees and Jamaica. The Ruhr district certainly does not have those features. Despite this, the Reggae Summer Festival, an annual music event devoted to the Jamaican music genre, has been held on the Ruhr since 2006. Besides reggae, dancehall and afrobeat can also be heard in the Revierpark Wischlingen in Dortmund.

Simon Sonnenschmidt, who was in charge of the show lighting design and programming in the Dancehall Soundsystem Arena, for U-Concert Veranstaltungsproduktionen GmbH & Co. KG, used 13 Clay Paky Sharpys, four Spheriscans and four Supersharpys, together with one dot2 core plus and one dot2 F-wing.

Sonnenschmidt explained, "The Supersharpy is the perfect light for illuminating the glass dome on the roof of the ice rink/Dancehall Soundsystem Arena. I created massive columns of light with the four mo

USA - A radio station that includes the name of the most iconic music festival in history in its own moniker has got to be steeped in rock tradition. Such is the case with WDST/Radio Woodstock. Located just a few miles from Max Yasgur's farm where the original Woodstock festival took place, the station has been at the forefront of progressive rock music for over 30 years, an accomplishment that has earned it three Billboard Magazine Station of the Year awards.

In 2005, the station celebrated its anniversary by creating its own festival, Mountain Jam. Though not nearly as big as Woodstock, Mountain Jam has become a musical force in its own right, drawing enthusiastic crowds to hear groups like Michael Franti and Spearhead, Widespread Panic, The Black Keys, The Allman Brothers Band, Gov't Mule, and more. This year, the four-day festival continued to roll with virtual nonstop mus

USA - Meyer Sound and Fantasy Studios have announced a collaboration on the newly re-launched Fantasy Film Centre. Featuring a state of the art Meyer Sound cinema system, the completely refurbished historic Fantasy Film Centre now has a new 5.1/7.1 monitoring system comprised of three Acheron 80 screen channel loudspeakers, 10 HMS-12 surround loudspeakers, two 650-P subwoofers, and a Galileo loudspeaker management system with one Galileo 408 and one Galileo 616 processor for system drive and optimization.

Fantasy Studios' director Jeffrey Wood commented, "Fantasy Film Centre was constructed like a musical instrument. The clarity and detail of the room is beautiful and it's perfect for precision mixing. We are proud to have achieved the re-build in an exceptional way, so that it is compatible and comparable with all of the top mix theatres."

"The Film Centre stage has solid

Switzerland - The Shure Montreux Jazz Voice Competition was established to nurture and promote talented young singers from all around the world. As sponsor of the competition since its inception in 2003, Shure has announced the winners of the 2016 contest, the finals for which were held on 9 July in the Petit The?

Europe - Bram de Clerck has joined Robe as business development manager for touring, TV & live events.

Bram is already well known to many in the world of entertainment technology lighting. Based in Belgium, his character, communication skills, quick wit and extensive network of contacts have helped establish him as an industry 'personality'.

This coupled with an intense passion and commitment to the Robe brand in recent years will make him "a great asset to our international team" says Robe CEO Josef Valchar, adding, "We are very pleased to have Bram on-board, his energy and enthusiasm is infectious and his experience is very valuable. We and the whole Robe distribution network welcome him and look forward to many positive results working together."

The scope of Bram's work at Robe will include developing the expanding and dynamic Robe community, liaising with clients,

USA - Following up on the success of its STRIKE 4 multi format warm white fixture, CHAUVET Professional has introduced the STRIKE 1, a versatile single pod light that serves as a blinder, strobe, wash and flood.

The newest member of the STRIKE series, this fixture is more than a scaled-down version of its forbearer, says the company. With a 230W warm white LED source (each of the four pods in the STRIKE 4 is 100W), the STRIKE 1 has a blisteringly bright and intense output. An outdoor-rated fixture, it is ready to add eye-popping looks to festival stages and open-air events, as well as to arena and music hall concerts.

Another key feature of the STRIKE 1 is its emulated red shift, which warms the colour temperature of the light as it dims to replicate the look of an incandescent fixture. The fixture's 16-bit dimming control also enhances its performance by allowing perfectl

USA - Pennington Entertainment, led by industry veteran Shawn Pennington, has announced a partnership with stage design and production company 44 Designs, headed by concert and event production expert Jeff 'Lava' Lavallee.

"Having worked with Jeff and the 44 Designs team extensively in recent years, I can tell you that there is not a more creative brain trust of individuals in the stage creative space in Nashville," says Pennington. "Every production that I have seen them produce, or been involved with has blown my mind every time! We could not be more excited about this partnership and the ability to deliver amazing production and event services in an affordable manner to the Nashville music community, and beyond."

Nashville-based 44 Designs enters the partnership with over 25 years of experience in lighting, touring and production. As a 360

UK - The Go-Between, a new British musical based on L.P. Hartley's classic novel, is currently playing at the Apollo theatre on Shaftsbury Avenue. Lighting designer Tim Lutkin explained the journey the production took to reach its current location in the heart of London's Theatreland.

"The Go-Between has a pretty interesting history; we opened at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds five years ago, before hitting the Derby Playhouse and Royal and Derngate in Northampton - the reviews were great and we really wanted to bring it to London, but we were aware of the need for a strong actor to play the lead role who could really pull in the crowds. When Michael Crawford said he'd do it, it was the perfect casting, so we started planning to bring the show to the West End."

Tim continued, "The lighting rig we have here in the Apollo is a full mix of what we used in Leeds,

UK - Singer/songwriter John Grant has been using Shure KSM8 and KSM9HS vocal microphones on his most recent UK tour, in addition to Shure PSM900 in-ear monitors.

Grant was the frontman in alt-rock band The Czars in his twenties and thirties, left the music business altogether for six years, and has enjoyed a more soulful renaissance as an electronica and orchestral-driven solo artist on leading independent label Bella Union in his forties, with a string of successful albums to his name.

Following the release of Grant's third solo album Grey Tickles, Black Pressure in Autumn 2015, he took to the road for a short tour of the UK and Ireland which lasted into early 2016. It was on these dates that he began using the Shure microphones, as Ber Quinn, the tour's front-of-house engineer, explains, "The difference once John started using the KSM9HS was startling. A voice as

Germany - Throughout one weekend the airfield of Neustadt-Glewe was the destination for fans of electronic music and the meeting place for the world's DJ elite. 40,000 visitors from 40 nations were celebrating together with the world's top DJs Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Armin van Buuren, Ti

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