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South Africa - Afrikaans is Groot (AIG) continues to celebrate Afrikaans music. The production, held at Time Square in Pretoria at the close of 2023 pulled out all the stops incorporating two DiGiCo Quantum 338, a Quantum 225 and an SD10 into the audio set up.

Ian Vos, technical director of Africaans is Groot, serves as the technical director at Coleske Group, a subsidiary of Warner Music Africa, ultimately owned by Warner Music Group in the United States. He oversees all technical aspects of the show, from design to execution, including budgeting.

“The technical team are amazing,” says Vos. “Coming to the Sun Arena improved the show as we had hit a bit of a ceiling, literally! In our previous church auditorium the ceiling couldn’t handle any m

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New Zealand - Cincinnati rock band The National’s touring lighting crew appreciated using a mix of Robe BMFL Blade and Spiider wash beam moving lights for their show at Auckland, New Zealand’s Spark Arena venue, for which equipment was supplied by rental company NW Group / Oceania and used to great effect to realise a touring version of Michael Brown’s production lighting design.

The National played the Australia and New Zealand leg of their ongoing world tour in February and March in a show that embraces new material from two albums including the latest Laugh Track and continues through 2024.

The production is being co-ordinated on the road by production manager Stuart Trenold and includes lighting and video crew chief Emil Hojmark from Denmark and lighting director Matt Greer from Virginia, USA who is operating lighting on the road.<

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USA - Linea Research and Optimal Audio have announced the appointment of Jeff Miranda as US national sales manager.

Having previously served as national sales manager for both brands with Allied ProTech, their former US distributor, Miranda comments, “This is an exciting move as it will allow me to focus more closely on Linea Research and Optimal Audio, and the solutions they offer. We have a well-established dealer base managed by our existing network of independent sales representatives, and with new products recently introduced there’s a lot to build upon.”

With both brands being part of the Audio Reproduction division of Focusrite Group, managing director, Dom Harter, explains, “Bringing Jeff on board allows him to continue his valuable work with both brands, ensuring continuity in our relationships and setting them up for continued growt

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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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Carbon Footprint - In 2021, Coldplay announced a 12-point plan to cut the carbon footprint of touring by 50%. Now, they've given an update on their progress, saying the first two years of their Music of the Spheres tour saw a 59% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions compared with their previous world tour.

They have used things like a dancefloor that generates electricity when fans jump up and down and have cut down on air travel. They have also revealed that seven million saplings have been planted as part of a commitment to grow a tree for every fan attending the shows.

"As a band, and as an industry, we’re a long way from where we need to be on this," they said in a statement. "But we’re grateful for everyone’s help so far, and we salute everyone who’s making efforts to push things in the right direction."

Among the devel

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UK - Visual Elements Ltd. has announced that Sam Tullett will join its board as sales director. Tullett brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in sales, particularly in developing multiple revenue streams for the business. His key role at Visual Elements will be to launch the company’s new dry-hire department and, in conjunction with Visual Elements’ account managers, promote the growth of our existing business.

Tullett will continue as managing director at STLS and join Mike Townsend and Amanda Townsend as sales director at Visual Elements. “Customers at both companies will retain their existing points of contact and can expect the same high levels of service and quality they have come to know and trust,” a statement says.

Mike Townsend of Visual Elements comments: “This is an exciting time for Visual Elements - Sam’s investment as

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UK - Brand experience technologists, Audience & Brands, and drone display company, AeroAVA, announced an innovation in live event technology at The Media Production & Technology Show in London.

The two UK-based companies unveiled Augmented Drone Shows, a concept that ‘elevates drone performances into a captivating mixed reality experience for live event broadcast audiences’.

Audience & Brands has worked with AeroAVA to introduce the ability to live track, generate and overlay digital content accurately, in real-time.

Tom Rees, AeroAVA managing director, said, “This innovation offers a never-seen-before enhancement to existing drone shows, specifically for broadcast viewers.” Rees continues, “Taking multiple live camera feeds, our system combines drone telemetry data, high performance media servers and very accurate align

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The Netherlands - Lighting and sound solutions provider DPL Licht en Geluid brought the '90s back to life in a spectacle at the recent Pump Up the '90s event. Held on 20 April, the Dutch event welcomed a line-up of artists including Charly Lownoise, T-Spoon, Flamman & Abraxas, Critical Mass, DJ Potato, DJ Zany and Don Cartel, all of whom delivered under the glow of equipment from Showtec, Infinity and DMT.

The Pump Up the '90s event at Evenementenhal Hardenberg witnessed an explosion of nostalgia as attendees were transported back to the golden era of dance music, with the expertise of DPL Licht en Geluid taking the experience to soaring heights. The event was supported by a range of Showtec, Infinity and DMT products, carefully selected to create an immersive atmosphere that captivated the audience from start to finish.

For the Duikboot Area (Su

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USA - Powersoft will showcase its new Unica maritime certification kit, its Verso cloud gateway, MyUniverso cloud platform, and new low-power Unica models at InfoComm 2024.

InfoComm attendees will have the opportunity to find out more about the latest addition to the all-in-one Unica platform: a maritime kit that confirms Unica can be used safely at sea.

The addition of a Unica maritime kit provides cruise ships and other marine vessels with all the same benefits offered by the platform, along with a number of selling points for marine users. 

In addition to the Unica maritime certification kit, Powersoft will showcase Verso, a gateway device designed to connect current Powersoft products to its MyUniverso cloud platform. Attendees will have the opportunity to find out how the Verso gateway helps system integrators and IT managers take full

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USA - Morgan Wallen's touring production for the One Night At A Time World 2024 Tour uses advanced lighting fixtures, coupled with a strategic layout, creating a captivating experience for audiences across the venue.

The substage measures an impressive 152ft in width and 72ft in depth, housing four key performance areas. Two of these areas, each approximately 48 by 48ft and elevated 12ft off the ground, allow for intimate moments that bring Morgan Wallen closer to the audience, including those seated to the sides.

Additionally, a 108ft-long thrust stage extends into the pit, ensuring Morgan’s presence is felt up close and personal by those in the front rows. Completing the setup is a ‘C’ stage, designed for acoustic sessions and positioned at the far opposite end of the audience, giving those fans the opportunity to get close as well. A dedicat

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USA - Fulcrum Acoustic will feature loudspeaker, software, and processing technologies at the InfoComm 2024 Show. The company will introduce new compact installation loudspeakers and demonstrate the latest capabilities of its Fulcrum One software and the Venueflex series of multi-function digital signal processors.

Stephen Siegel, president of Fulcrum Acoustic, comments, “We are excited for people to experience the confluence of our hardware and software development efforts over the past year. The loudspeaker products we’re debuting are perfect companions to support the active acoustics, object-based mixing and other complimentary technologies that are powered by the Venueflex processor and managed in our One software.”  

Visitors can interact with the new Fulcrum Acoustic loudspeakers. The company will have a dedicated software kiosk and enc

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USA - Cinematic rock band Starset blended ‘celestial visuals with cosmic sounds’ on their Immersion Tour. Bandit Lites supplied a lighting system for the band who are known for their ‘expansive storytelling, immersive live shows and exploration of futuristic narratives and existential questions’. They released their latest single and music video Brave New World on 3 May.

Lighting programmer/operator Jamie Masché created a design that would complement the new production elements of the live show, including holograms and massive video walls. With the aim of not blowing out the video content, Masché utilised an array of side wash, Tyler Ladder Towers as well as floor wash to illuminate the seven-member band.

“Tyler Veneziano, client rep at Bandit, reached out to us and helped our vision become reality,” said Masché.

“Ja

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USA – The powerful trio of Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin and Pitbull went out on the road this spring for The Trilogy Tour – a series of concerts with two large diamond IMAG screens and a LED wall dominating the stage, which for Igelsias was driven by tvONE's Green Hippo brand of Hippotizer Media Servers.

The shows proved so successful in the last quarter of 2023 that 18 more shows were played around the US in 2024, with each artist performing with a striking identity conveyed through visuals and light. JMT Concepts has been working for Iglesias’s Ei Productions for more than a decade and was brought in by Iglesias as video director. JMT Concepts supplied two Hippotizer Boreal+ MK2 Media Servers to the tour, with one as main and one backup. The design and creative was realised by Travis Shirley, who also created the content for the show.

“Al

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Sweden - Under the experienced hand of veteran Eurovision technical show director, Ola Melzig, the production designer, Florian Wieder, and lighting and screen content designer Fredrik Stormby of Green Wall Designs, worked closely with associate lighting designers Mike Smith and Michael Straun to ensure the 68th Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in the Malmö Arena was an impressive event.

“As this was the third time Sweden had hosted the Eurovision Song Contest in 10 years, we set ourselves the challenge of doing something new and brave that would respectfully challenge the traditional Eurovision concept a little and introduce a more large-scale concert tour feel to the familiar ‘studio show’ concept,” explains Stormby.

Taking inspiration from Swedish music, songwriting and local architecture, and a tricky request from the producers to put the au

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USA/Europe - ETC has announced two software releases for the Hog 4 console’s operating system. Hog 4 OS v3.21 and v4.1 are the bridging releases with export/import features to get old show files into Hog desks running v4.x software.

Senior product manager Sarah Clausen comments, “We recognise the value of our users’ hard work overtime and the cost of having to recreate shows to move forward with Hog into the future. These two releases create the bridge needed to bring older show data into the v4 world and beyond.”

Hog OS v3.21 is required for users that wish to import / export existing show files. Show files can now be exported to an XML format which allows for easier transitions between software versions where show file compatibility may be limited. Section 4.12 of the Hog OS v3.21 help manual offers details on how to use the Show Import/Exp

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USA - When it was first published in 1967, S.E. Hinton’s coming-of-age novel, The Outsiders, struck a chord with readers with its gritty-yet-tender tale of social and familial upheaval, aptly articulated by an author who was, herself, a teenager. Sixteen years later, celebrated film director Francis Ford Coppola brought the eponymous story to the silver screen with a cast full of young actors that would all go on to become Hollywood A-listers.

Fast-forwarding to 2024, The Outsiders is being reimagined once again, this time as a Broadway musical featuring immersive L-ISA technology and the NYC Theatre District’s first L-Acoustics L Series loudspeaker deployment. The new show is nominated for 12 Tony Awards including Best Musical and Best Sound Design of a Musical for sound designer Cody Spencer.

“People’s expectations of the

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Sweden - The 2024 Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) was staged in Malmo Arena, and was memorable for many elements including the technical presentation. Under the show technical direction of Ola Melzig, the team of creatives, programmers, engineers, network architects and technicians collaborated to stage the first ever in-the-round ESC.

Lighting designer Fredrik Stormby of Stockholm-based creative studio Greenwall Design and his team took care of all things lighting as well as co-ordinating the screens content, working in close conjunction with production designer Florian Wieder, and included on the lighting plot were 52 x Robe Fortes, 57 x T1 Profiles and 14 x T2 Profiles.

These Robe moving lights were used to cover all the stage and Green Room key lighting requirements.

Rigged on multiple roof and side trusses flown above and around both these

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USA – Genelec will be further expanding its Smart IP family of active installation loudspeaker systems at InfoComm 2024 with the introduction of the 3440A – a new PoE subwoofer.

The 3440A joins the existing Smart IP range of wall, ceiling, and pendant loudspeaker models to provide a scalable full-range audio solution that combines sound quality and networked convenience. With the addition of the 3440A, the Smart IP family now represents an even more flexible and future-proof choice for integrators and installers everywhere, says Genelec.

Originally launched in 2019, the Smart IP range provides flexible power, audio, and management features via a single standard CAT cable. Producing studio-quality audio with superb clarity, intelligibility and uniform coverage, all models can be freely combined on a network. The Smart IP range is compatible with b

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UK - Technology collective Tin Drum asked Manchester-based audio specialists, tube uk, to assist with the delivery of a sound system - speakers together with a playback / racking control system - for an innovative series of immersive mixed reality performance concerts, Kagami, featuring the music of the late artist, composer and audio producer, Ryuichi Sakamoto.

The in-the-round shows were originally staged during the 2023 Manchester International Festival (MIF23), at the Old Granada Studios, also with tube as audio supplier.

Tin Drum next moved the show to the Roundhouse in London for a high-profile showcase and again asked tube uk to supply the audio equipment, including speakers and collaborating closely with their sound designer, Rob Parkinson.

tube’s Melvyn Coote and John Redfern were delighted to tackle such an interesting mi

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Venezuela - Osteria in the capital city of Caracas offers diners Italian food and cocktails in relaxed surroundings, including a restaurant and terrace, plus an additional VIP room and VIP terrace.

Osteria required the sound system to be ‘elegant and unobtrusive in its design, and powerful in its performance, contributing to the restaurant’s concept of inspiring guests to lose themselves in ‘il dolce far niente’ as a way of enjoying life’.

Nexo distributor Sun Music Pro designed a system based around the ultra-compact Nexo ID14, which measures just 130mm wide, 130mm high and 120mm front to back, and uses a single coaxial 4-inch driver with a 1.4-inch Neodymium HF.

With processing and amplification from Nexo’s DTD-I and three DTDAMP4X0.7, the system comprises six ID14s with LF extension from two IDS108 subs in the main restaurant,

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UK - P&O Cruises has installed Shure Axient systems for use during its theatre shows and live music performances. The upgrade was made in partnership with Autograph Sound.

Autograph Sound has led the fleet-wise wireless system upgrade programme, which required efficiency, reliability, and outstanding performance that could comply with the 700MHz Clearance Regulation Programme in the UK.

Autograph Sound turned to Shure Axient Digital Wireless System, which was well-received during the initial installation and then was chosen for the fleet-wide upgrade programme. In due course, Shure’s Axient Digital Wireless System will be implemented across the entire P&O Cruise fleet.

Each ship has been equipped with a range of Shure Axient Digital and ULX-D equipment, including AD1, ADX1M, AD2 and ADX2 ShowLink handheld wireless microphone transmi

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India - Proel has confirmed announces its entry into the Indian market. Headquartered in Sant'Omero, Italy, Proel offers a diverse portfolio of 10 brands encompassing professional audio, commercial audio, conferencing systems, lighting, stage equipment, musical instruments, and associated accessories. The company has strategically positioned itself globally, with offices in the USA, UK, Tunisia, South Korea, and now, India.  

The decision to invest in India is a testament to Proel's commitment to expansion and growth in emerging markets.

The Indian operations are based in Bangalore led by Nagaraj Mallikarjun and the sales team in Delhi, which is led by Shantanu Banerjee. There are plans underway to establish a presence in Mumbai shortly. “This strategic move has been in development for three years, culminating in a state-of-the-art warehousing an

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