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UK - Griff Hewis is regularly seen on front of house duties for concerts and events around the UK and has worked with many of the UK’s leading orchestras and bands such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, HM Royal Marines Band, BBC Symphony and Concert Orchestras. He has worked on major events such as London 2012 and Sochi 2014 Olympic Games, BBC Proms and BBC New Years Eve Broadcasts. Griff also owns a growing pool of equipment to support his engagements in playback/recording and sound reinforcement.
Always on the lookout for interesting new microphones, Griff discovered Austrian Audio via a webinar for the Institute of Professional Sound, where he is a director and was immediately intrigued by these new Vienna-made Austrian Audio microphones.
Griff says “Austrian

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USA - Constructed between 1806 and 1821, the Baltimore Basilica was the first Roman Catholic cathedral built in the United States. A National Historic Landmark, the 1,200-seat Basilica underwent extensive restoration between 2004-2006 to implement modern systems throughout the building while restoring the interior to the original design.
As with many houses of worship, the high ceilings and ubiquitous hard surfaces made for a challenging acoustic environment. Room reverberation measured 4.5 seconds at mid-frequencies and 6.1 seconds at low-frequencies. Digitally steerable arrays from Renkus-Heinz were the solution to improve speech intelligibility.
To improve acoustic performance, the Archdiocese of Baltimore turned to Neil Thompson Shade, FASA president and principal consultant of Acoustical Design Collaborative, for help. With experience in over 1000 projects, many d

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Lithuania - Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania celebrated its 700th anniversary this year. Amongst many different events, a revival of Joseph Haydn's oratorio The Creation was performed at Vilnius City Hall.
The oratorio was first played at the historic Vilnius City Hall more than 200 years ago and later performed in Vienna, Austria. The premiere was made possible with the installation of a new Prolights lighting system by Sonus Exsertus, a company with extensive experience in the field, and Prolights' distributor in the region.
According to the manager of Vilnius City Hall, Perlis Vaisieta, lighting plays a significant emotional role in creating an atmosphere for professional, high-quality events. The new lighting system, which includes 46 LumiPix 12UQPRO and 24 Smart BatPlus, will bring colour and dynamics to events at the City Hall, making it more versatile a
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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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Israel - The Israeli Opera House in Tel Aviv has invested in 27 x Robe Esprites moving lights – the first Robe products in the house – as part of a drive to invest in more LED lighting fixtures and future-based technologies, explained head of lighting Eyal Levi.
The Opera House runs an average of six or seven major productions per season, a mix of new and revivals, working with a series of leading international lighting designers and lighting directors, all known for their intricate work, critical eyes, and diligence. Opera is one of the most demanding performance genres to light.
The new investment had been on the cards for some time, and Eyal arranged various tests and shootouts with a range of different products, from which Esprite was chosen as “the best-performing fixture to meet all our needs”.
Assisting in making this choice was the venue’s lig

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USA - Wisycom SRL has announced a corporate restructuring that will enhance its business in the Americas. Among the changes is the opening of Wisycom, Inc., its new U.S.-based facility, which will give the company a larger and more active channel into the Americas. Led by the newly appointed vice president of sales and marketing, John Kowalski, the new office will allow the team to better support the brand’s growth in the region.
As a division of Wisycom SRL, Wisycom, Inc. gives customers in the region a more direct connection to the brand’s sales, support and administrative personnel. “Wisycom has grown tremendously in the United States, especially over the past year, and we found these changes necessary to help nurture and expand our business,” says Massimo Polo, CEO of Wisycom SRL. “With the restructuring, I am also pleased to welcome John [Kowalski] to our te

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UK – Electric Airshows, the new company offering aerial drone light shows to the UK events industry, has announced its membership of PLASA, the UK-based Professional Lighting and Sound Association, and ARPAS-UK, the only trade association focused on the UK drone community.
Electric Airshows, which officially announced its arrival at the start of 2023, has been a long time in development. Headed by two well-known figures from the entertainment production industry, Chris Crockford and Ian Lomas, the company is now offering an initial fleet of 100 drones, purchased from leading Chinese drone show specialist, DAMODA Intelligent Control Technology. The company plans to reach a total of 500 drones – the limit allowed by the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) – by mid-2023, making it a major player in the UK’s emerging drone show market.
In being accepted by PLASA

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Coronation Concert - A ballot has opened for 10,000 free tickets for a star-studded concert at Windsor Castle to mark the King's coronation. The televised show will be on 7 May, the day after King Charles is crowned at Westminster Abbey. The BBC has promised the line-up will feature "musical icons and contemporary stars". There are 5,000 pairs of tickets in the ballot, which opened at 07:00 GMT on Friday and will close on 28 February. The tickets would be allocated based on the geographical spread of the UK population, the BBC said, with those successful notified by late April.
The castle's east lawn would see "a world-class orchestra play interpretations of musical favourites fronted by fantastic entertainers, alongside performers from the world of dance and the arts", the BBC said. It "will also feature a selection of spoken-word sequences delivered by stars of stage and s

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Spain - LEA Professional has launched its first application software, Sharkware. Developed in part based on integrator and customer feedback, Sharkware allows integrators to work both in offline design and online mode on a systems amplification configuration to ensure a more seamless, accessible, and flexible user experience with all LEA Professional Connect Series amplifiers.
“At its core LEA Professional is a technology company, and we are working to provide customers with the smartest, most flexible tech possible to ensure their AV systems are built for the future,” commented Nick Mourn, applications engineering & consultant relations manager.
Free to download and available for both Windows and Mac, Sharkware includes features such as amplifier grouping, offline design, granular user access control levels, locked speaker tunings, and a graphical EQ. Sharkwa

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Europe - Optocore’s presence at ISE 2023 produced an outcome ‘far beyond the company’s expectations’. Sharing the booth with sister company BroaMan, the focal point was the Optocore party held to recognise 30 years since the founding of Optocore technology, and 20 years since the company itself was founded in its name.
Optocore marketing coordinator, Kamil Zajdel, reported a significant visitor bounce back following the years of the pandemic, and the show’s proactive expansionary move from Amsterdam to Barcelona.
“It was clear that confidence had returned and this was reflected not only in the number of visitors generally but also in the response to our party,” he said. However, the party has only just started, he affirms, and these anniversaries will be celebrated at further events that will run throughout 2023.
“A lot more audio professionals a

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UK - HireHop, the cloud equipment rental software, has been adding new features at a rapid pace and has just released their new maintenance module that can also be run as a progressive web app on any device. The addition is free and has been automatically added to the software.
The maintenance module allows you to track repairs, log tests and services, move assets to different depots, change what an asset is, and much more.
The maintenance module is fully adaptive to all mobile devices and can even use your phone camera as a barcode or QR code scanner. You can also use inbuilt or linked barcode scanners or an RFID reader.
Another feature is that it enables users to do batch tasks. For example, if you have 50 items that you have just tested, you can use the bulk scan feature (even with the phone camera) that will let you scan the barcodes of the 50 items and then

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Denmark - The town of Kolding is home to the Sonic College. When the college built a new facility, the staff implemented Audinate’s Dante transport protocol for routing audio throughout the building.
No small undertaking, staff had to interconnect multiple stereo studios and their companion mastering suites, a foley stage, immersive recording studio, Dolby Atmos mastering suite and theatrical mix stage - even a colossal 187-channel, AVB-based Meyer Sound Spacemap Go spatial sound system located in the five-story atrium, all via Dante (with a little help from AVB-to-Dante conversion cards).
Lars Tirsbæk, a lecturer at Sonic College, was instrumental in setting up the new facility and deciding what spaces would be most beneficial to students and essential to delivering a good grounding in sound design. “[Building the new facility] was an opportunity to start from sc

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USA - AKG has formally launched the AKG Stories Behind The Sessions web series on YouTube.
Hosted by radio and television personality Nic Harcourt, Stories Behind The Sessions spotlights the producers, engineers and songwriters responsible for the music that defined the sound of popular music and the culture at large. With a candid one-on-one interview format, guests talk about their creative process, what it was like to collaborate with iconic artists and their reaction to watching their work become a hit in real-time.
In the latest episode, the first one recorded in the Harman Experience Centre in Los Angeles, Harcourt sits down with musician, producer and INXS bassist, Garry Beers, to discuss the band’s album Kick, which celebrates its 35th anniversary this year.
The first two episodes of the series were recorded live at the NAMM Show

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USA - Point Source Audio has unveiled its new Series9 sub-miniature microphone collection for professional users. Available in a variety of formats, the microphones deliver a combination of high max SPL with high sensitivity making them versatile and able to easily handle the ‘powerful vocals of a live sound event or the quietest whispers of a conversation in a studio’.
Despite the tiny form factor, the mics feature 142 dB max SPL along with a -39 dB mic sensitivity - ensuring it will deliver on every aspect of a performance with ease. This performance capability is matched by its practicality. Series9 has the added Endure connectors - with accelerated life testing to 12,000 bends - as a standard option to its long list of flagship features like the 360˚ bendable booms, 180˚ reversible earhooks, IP57 waterproof rating, and sanitization with 70% Isopropyl Alcohol.

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Qatar – QatarEnergy’s architecturally striking new auditorium within Doha’s West Bay area opened in late 2022, offering the company a space for conferences, keynote addresses and lectures.
Its beehive-style ceiling is rigged with Vari-Lite VL2600 Profile, VL800 EventWash, Cantata LED and Leko LED luminaires from Signify to provide rich colours and contrasting looks. The lighting throughout is controlled by a Neo Console and Vision.Net system.
AV systems integrator and Vari-Lite’s Qatar partner Techno Q was appointed by the Arab Engineering Bureau to design, specify and install a lighting and control system for the auditorium during the design stages.
“We were approached to provide technical details, budgeting, riser diagrams and layouts for the lighting and control elements of the project,” says Techno Q’s K.P Afnas Muhammed. “We have been working

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UK - Wet Leg - founded just three years ago – have seen the kind of global success most young acts could only ever hope for. Their first viral hit, Chaise Longue, was the catalyst for a meteoric rise which has seen their self-titled debut album land at the number one spot in three different countries.
What followed was an unrelenting promo and touring regime, with international audio support from Eighth Day Sound, part of the Clair Global Brand Group. Technical duties were led by production manager and monitor engineer, Karima Kingsley, augmented by the skills of FOH mix engineer, Ben Ellis.
“We got the opportunity to work with the band, who were fairly new to touring, and as a result we've been able to reconnect with our jobs in a way that we hadn't before, as we'd been mainly working with people who are so seasoned,” says Kingsley.
“Initially, we

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World - UK based A.C. Worldwide Group has announced a number of senior appointments as part of its strategy for continual growth.
In the UK, Phill Capstick, who has been with the business for 37 years, will step up to the role of CEO in UK based A.C. Entertainment Technologies and, following 25 years of success, Jonathan Walters becomes the company’s managing director.
In other UK news, Andy Dodd will be retiring from his executive role on the Board of Flashlight Ltd, but the Company says he has accepted a non-executive directorship so will still be helping the Flashlight team and their customers.
Across the Atlantic, the sales and distribution businesses operating as A.C. Americas (incorporating A.C. Lighting and A.C. Promedia) will be led by long-serving board member Phill Capstick who is appointed as CEO. Joining him on the board as president, after six yea

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The Netherlands - Located at the heart of Amsterdam’s night life, the former dairy, Melkweg (Milky Way), is a popular music and cultural venue that hosts major concerts, acts and performances. With four spaces under one roof and embracing all music styles, Melkweg’s variety of artists and audiences is well-known worldwide.
Recently, Melkweg celebrated a major upgrade to its lighting grids, adding 52 Ayrton Diablo profile fixtures to its inventory, supplied by full-service consultant Airlight of Utrecht, headed by Ruud Pouwels.
Pouwels, with his rich experience as lighting engineer, has for many years served as a lighting consultant for theatres and clubs, and provides a full and worry-free package of lighting services that includes 24/7 technical backup. Assisting his customers in the selection, commissioning and servicing of equipment, Ruud explains his choice of

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UK - More than 30 years after they became the first metal band to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard charts in 1991 with Slave To The Grind, Skid Row still has plenty of highly combustible fuel left in the tank. This was evident on the last leg of their 2022 The Gangs All Here tour in support of their new album, and their first with their new lead singer, winner of Swedish Idol, Erik Gronwall.
Wrapping up 2022 with 22 shows in seven countries, the tour coincided directly with the release of the new album and saw the sold-out London O2 Forum show being filmed for a 2023 DVD release. Reflecting Skid Row’s high-octane sound during this performance was a raw, intense and fast moving lighting design by the band’s LD Will Furze, who once again enlisted Fineline Lighting to supply the touring package.
Featuring a complete package, including networking, p

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Norway - Located just north of the Bergen metropole, the new Åsane Arena boasts professional standard facilities for over 20 sporting activities. Three years in the making, the venue caters to both the local community and national and international competitions. The facilities offer an array of sporting disciplines, including a new and improved home for Norway’s First Division football team, Åsane FC.
Committed to maintaining absolute quality throughout the design-build, Arena management chose an L-Acoustics A Series sound system for the outdoor football stadium and the main indoor stadium, both intended to host national and international events.
"The design concept for Åsane Arena was to establish a top-quality sports complex with a broad offering and multiple facilities all under one roof,” explains Roald Bruun-Hanssen, managing director at Åsane Arena. “Al

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India - One of India’s fastest growing live event service providers, Global Production Services (GPS), has added a Martin Audio WPC line array to its inventory, becoming the first company in India to invest in the system.
The system was supplied and will be supported by Vardhaman Megatech Pvt (VMT), Martin Audio’s Indian distributor.
GPS’ portfolio spans prominent Bollywood music events, award ceremonies, political rallies, corporate functions and more as well as conventional live gigs.
“We have always placed great pride in the quality of technical equipment and expertise that we provide for our shows,” states GPS director Saurabh Ayare. “We’d been wanting to expand our inventory for some time and after experiencing WPC we knew right away that this system would be the perfect addition to our inventory. We were extremely impressed with the quality of

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UK - 22live has invested in three Outline Newton units as part of their initial hire inventory. The Midlands-based company have hit the ground running, having already supplied touring systems for The Australian Pink Floyd Show and Sigur Rós as well as completing a run of O2 Arena shows with UK rapper D-Block Europe.
Technical director Simon Gladstone comments, “We are using Newton as our front-end processor with the Martin Audio Wavefront Precision series. The Newton lives in the FOH drive rack, sending PA returns to the Martin Audio IK42 amplifiers at stage end via our Dante enabled fibre backbone which carries control and comms.”
22live’s ‘no legacy equipment’ approach has allowed them to create ‘state of the art drive racks’ which also feature MIPRO’s ACT-800 wireless system. This enables high quality wireless transmission of measurement mic signals
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