Details
Germany - Following its presentation of the world's first 1U Recorder with up to 194 input channels, XI-Machines has now announce its official certification from software company Steinberg.

Steinberg's professional audio software Nuendo Live is billed as the ideal complement to the innovative multitrack audio system Recorder.1 from XI-Machines, which allows simultaneous use of up to 390 I/O channels.

Recorder.1 was designed for professional use with MADI or Dante audio networks. Record-ready in 33 seconds, the rugged 19" 1U rack-mounted solution allows 24+ hour recording in EBU-compliant RIFF64 format, is easy to use and features rock solid reliability even under extreme recording conditions.

"We are very pleased about the Recorder.1 certification from Steinberg,&quo

Details
UK - 'Disruption agency' TBWA developed a floating house brand activation for accommodation marketplace Airbnb, to celebrate new rules on short-term lets in London, and event producer Andy Ashton called on Star Events for the delivery.

With no available barge capable of providing the required 'foundations' for a two-bedroom house, replete with kitchen, living room, bathroom and garden, Star Events built a bespoke floating structure, which was licensed by the Port of London Authority.

Star came to the event via a wave of other waterborne showcases, Jaguar and Cortana among them, and worked with regular collaborators, including Setsquare Staging and Livett's Launches, to bring it to fruition.

Taken from order to completion in just four weeks, the project was launched on the River Thames and sailed straight into a celebration of media coverage on Monday 18 May.

Star Events' p

Details
USA - ZZ Top may be nearing 50 years together, but the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group shows no signs of slowing down as they continue selling out shows across all of North America. Bandit Lites provided the lighting package for ZZ Top in a design made to match the band's rock sound.

Lighting designer Gabe Hodge built on the previous year's design which consisted of 18 lamp bars with six GRN LED pars per bar, six Color Kinetics Colorblaze 72 LED strip lights, and eight Elation CUEPIX WW2 Blinders which replaced the four GRN 8-lite moles.

"I knew that I wasn't going to use the colour features on the 8-lite, and I also wanted more fixtures to spread out amongst the rig," said Hodge. "I was able to get eight of the Elations, and I really liked the way they updated the design."

The GRN Pars and Elation Blinders were spread out across the downstage, mid stage

featured content

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

Details
UK - Following the success of last year's annual conference, accounting specialists Tax Assist again turned to Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) to deliver full technical production and design - sound, lighting, video, rigging and staging - for their 2015 event, which had the added resonance of also being their 20th anniversary.

The format of the show in the Caernarfon Suite at Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, south Wales, was a conference and presentation during the day, with the room transformed in a rapid 60 minute turnaround between 6 and 7pm to a gala dinner and party.

Entertainment featured magic from Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee and live music Bjorn Again.

The CPL team was led by Lee Gruszeckyj, who created a stylish design based around the exceptionally tight timescale involved - an intense 24 hours of activity.

"Central to the design was it being achievable in

Details
USA - The Floyd Central High School in Floyds Knobs, Indiana, production of Mary Poppins performed beneath a new professional lighting rig of Elation Professional fixtures, received top reviews.

Floyd Central's new Elation lighting rig, purchased from Phoenix Lighting of Louisville, Kentucky, was part of a recent school lighting renovation and Mary Poppins was the first show to have the new gear available.

Floyd Central High School's director of theatre arts, Robbie Steiner, produced and directed the production and also designed the scenery. Concerned a couple of years ago about the quality of their theatre's lighting, he approached school administrators to see what could be done to begin upgrading their outdated system.

"Our school auditorium was constructed in 1981 and the bulk of the fixtures we were using were from that time period," he says. &quo

Details
Europe - Two more rental houses have placed orders for the new Meyer Sound Leopard linear sound reinforcement system: Eenorm Facilitair of the Netherlands and Hurricane Sound & Light of Slovakia.

Only recently announced at Prolight + Sound, the Leopard line array loudspeaker and its accompanying 900-LFC low-frequency control element are the smallest and most versatile members of Meyer Sound's flagship Leo family.

"After listening to the Leopard system, I was not only surprised but shocked," recalls Martin Štefanek, managing director of Hurricane. "I couldn't believe a system so small and lightweight would have such enormous power and brilliant sound - not to mention the simplicity of the rigging and connections."

For Eenorm Facilitair, flexibility and sonic performance are key to the purchase decision. "We were stunned at the sound quality of Leopar

Details
UK - Lighting hire and technical event production specialists Blue Parrot have joined Martin Professional's UK dealer network, adding 12 new Martin MAC Quantum Profile moving heads to their Edinburgh-based hire stock.

The Quantum Profiles are the latest addition to Blue Parrot's large moving light inventory which includes 30 MAC Aura washes, 24 MAC 101 units and a mixture of the flagship MAC Viper series of products: Profile, Performance and Wash DX models.

"We've had a great experience with our Martin MAC Aura and MAC 101 fixtures over the last few years," says Dave Morris, head of hires, Blue Parrot. "They're reliable and versatile lights in diverse applications, so it makes sense for us to invest in the Quantum Profile to continue offering the latest and best equipment to our production and dry hire customers."

A number of high-profile technical produc

Details
Theatre Report - Musical theatre accounts for more than half of all box office income despite comprising just 15% of all productions staged, a report has suggested. Full findings from the British Theatre Repertoire report shows that musical theatre shows made up just 15% of all productions staged in 2013, with plays forming 72%. In total, 2,196 shows were assessed, of which 329 were musicals. The report was published by the British Theatre Consortium in conjunction with the Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre.

Motown Magic - Motown the Musical is to open in the West End. The musical, which premiered on Broadway in 2013, will begin previews at the Shaftesbury Theatre in February 2016. The show had initially been planned to run at the Dominion Theatre. Featuring more than 50 Motown tracks, the musical tells the story behind the record label's success.

Motown f

Details
UK - Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance is one of the UK's top specialist higher education institutions delivering education in single subject - Theatre Training. The College runs an annual symposium designed to further expand the knowledge and skill sets of its students and KV2 Audio were delighted to be involved with this year's Offstage, Onstage and Beyond event.

One of the College's key aims is to expose their students to a wide range of ideas and concepts relating to the various courses offered.

KV2 Audio's involvement in the week-long symposium began with a seminar to students from the BA (Hons) Performance Sound (Live Design and Engineering) course, members of the in-house technical team as well as a selection of people with a general interest in high quality audio systems.

The 300-seat Rose Theatre hosted the seminar beginning with a presentation

Details
Canada - There's nothing reckless about a willingness to explore, as the current Bryan Adams tour is discovering. "If there's one enduring thing with the way Jody Perpick deals with his responsibility for Bryan's front of house mix, it's his willingness to keep exploring new technologies."

Rob Nevalainen, who said this only last month, has many good reasons to celebrate Perpick's sense of adventure. "A little over a year ago my company Gearforce needed to invest in a good medium size PA system. What were the choices? There weren't too many large US audio companies close to the Canadian border, so the field was open. We first looked at the d&b audiotechnik V-Series not long after it came out. We liked it immediately for its natural sound and its great power to weight ratio." Not that he made a purchase straight away. But to understand why he eventually did, it

Details
UK - Lighting designer Conleth White asked leading Irish technical production and rental company Just Lite to supply lighting for the Irish premier of Titanic Dance which was staged at the Millennium Forum Theatre in Derry.

The new production - due to tour in 2016 - has a narrative based around the world's most famous cruise liner, from its beginning at the famous Harland & Wolff Shipyard in Belfast, to its tragic end at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean.

Conleth was given an open book when it came to the lighting design. He's been using Robe's Pointes frequently for lighting musicals and likes to integrate the myriad of beam options possible using these fixtures into the choreography, and this proved "A great opportunity to do the same with an Irish dance show".

For Titanic Dance, he utilised 24 Pointes, 12 600E Spots, 12 ColorWash 1200E ATs, fo

Details
USA / Europe - Tom Kenny, production and lighting designer for the current The Who Hits 50! North American/European tour, has been designing for The Who, as well as Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey's regular solo productions, since 1990.

Kenny has used Chauvet Professional's Nexus panels on a number of his projects since the company first brought him some demo versions to try out. "I've used the Nexus products on a lot of my shows and always wanted to use them on The Who," says Kenny. "They have some very cool effects inside. They give me a great effect; they're very bright; and they can light the whole arena. They're just very powerful and they give lots of different variations."

For this tour, because it was the band's hits, Kenny wanted to go for a clean rock look. "Since I use a lot of the Nexus panels on my other projects, I knew for this design t

Details
USA - Clear-Com will present its latest communication and connectivity tools at InfoComm 2015.

The FreeSpeak II 1.9GHz roaming wireless solution has already proven to be an exceptional wireless intercom system for large scale productions. It supports up to five separate channels per wireless beltpack, providing more expansive roaming coverage using multiple antennas. When combined with the unrivalled flexibility of the Eclipse-HX Digital Matrix Frame, the result is a wireless intercom system with connections to well over 16 partylines and the flexibility to seamlessly cover difficult buildings and remote zones.

New for InfoComm and in addition to the 1.9GHz products, FreeSpeak II can also operate in the 2.4GHz frequency band with new system components. Even though the new FreeSpeak II 2.4GHz will have a separate yet similar set of beltpacks and transceiver antennas to the 1.9G

Details
UK - Renowned engineer David Loudoun and his company DMZ Live have an impressive list of recording credits to their names, including Coldplay, Depeche Mode, Spotify, One Direction and EMI Records. One of the company's latest projects was the recording of Celebrating Jon Lord at the Royal Albert Hall at the beginning of April, where a Bel Digital MADI monitor was deployed for ultimate confidence

Held in memory of ex-Deep Purple keyboard player Jon Lord, Celebrating Jon Lord at the Royal Albert Hall featured performances from many of his friends and band mates. The resulting album, for which DMZ Live recorded and mixed all versions, has subsequently reached number one in the Music Video charts (Blu-Ray and DVD) in four countries.

DMZ Live's high spec digital recording mobile was used for the recording stage at the Royal Albert Hall, with the premix done at the comp

Details
UK - Verbatim has launched two lines of LED track lights for impressive accent lighting in retail, museum and gallery venues. The non-dimmable product line - consisting of four different variants - is geared towards customers looking for easy track light installation and operation at low cost. The other line - which is dimmable - features six products delivering greater lumen output, efficacy and lifetime alongside enhanced luminaire housing design features.

Suitable for accent and spotlighting, the LED track light heads provide a white colour temperature ranging from 3000K to 4000K depending on which SKU is chosen. The products come with a range of accessories, including an anti-glare snoot for the dimmable line and a honeycomb louvre for glare reduction in the non-dimmable line.

Available in three power ratings (15W, 28W and 48W), the dimmable range of track lights delivers

Details
UK - Miltec Distribution has appointed Greg Oliver as audio sales manager. Greg brings over 20 years of professional audio industry knowledge to Miltec, having previously worked for RCF, EAW and KV2 Audio.

"This is a great time to be coming on board at Miltec Distribution and being an integral part of the company," says Oliver. "Especially with the recent Pioneer Pro Audio announcement and the other great audio brands that Miltec Distribution has on board."

(Jim Evans)

Details
UK - AED Distribution UK has enjoyed the intimate, lively and focused environment of PLASA Focus Leeds for the past three years and the 2015 show last week once again met the expectations of this favoured show. Spread across two separate stands, the new enlarged AED Distribution UK Team enjoyed a busy two days discussing the strong portfolio of bAV products now offered in the UK, all underpinned by the range of AED solutions.

The main stand was home to the lighting and rigging offering from AED Distribution that includes High End Systems, Prolyte, Columbus McKinnon, SRS Light Design, Swisson, AV Stumpfl, Doughty, Verlinde (Stagemaker) and MediaLas.

Prominent were the latest stage lighting luminaires from High End Systems under the LED RISING Banner, including the SolaSpot Pro 1500 with its 400w White LED engine providing a staggering 20,000 Lumens output and the Shapeshifter C

Details
USA - For the first time since moving into a large sanctuary space a decade ago, congregants of Clinton Frame Mennonite Church in Goshen, Indiana are experiencing the exhilarating power of congregational singing, thanks to a new Meyer Sound Constellation acoustic system.

Constellation not only restores the sense of a unified worshipping community that was present in their previous smaller church, but by engaging different presets, it also adds acoustic "life" to the spoken word and energizes both the worship team and the rest of the congregation.

Constellation gives venues the ability to modify their room acoustics at the press of a button, allowing them to host a wide range of events and provide the acoustics most appropriate for them. For houses of worship like Clinton Frame, Constellation offers the ideal sonic characteristics for congregants to feel immersed in t

Details
UK - Four times Latin Grammy nominated producer and mixer Andy Bradfield has completed a complete upgrade of his studio in London's Parsons Green which he calls Studio A. In recent years Andy has carved a remarkable niche being the 'go to guy' for both high end pop and rock acts as well as crossover acts and movie and gaming soundtracks.

Having begun his career at the legendary Olympic and Townhouse studios, it made sense for Andy to turn to ex Olympic maintenance engineer Paul Wilkes for the installation of the upgrade.

He explained: "Paul did a great job and recommended we used Van Damme blue series cable almost exclusively because of its reliability and suppleness when running it around corners and tight turns. The studio is based around a Pro Tools HDX system with Xmon software and I use an Icon 24 mixing surface which suits me and the way I work. Originally the Icon

Details
Poland - The Audio Engineering Society held its highly-successful 138th Audio Engineering Society Convention at the Sofitel Victoria Hotel in Warsaw, Poland, 7-10 May, 2015.

This first-ever AES Convention to be held in Poland was co-chaired by Bozena Kostek and Umberto Zanghieri, and featured a keynote address by ORF (Austrian TV) sound engineer Florian Camerer, as well as the Heyser Memorial lecture given by Genelec Chairman Dr. Ilpo Martikainen.

Other highlights included the popular Project Studio Expo stage, several unique Tech Tours of local Polish audio production facilities, and a wall-to-wall exhibition area, where attendees were given a first-hand look into the latest professional audio equipment and services from leading manufacturers.

Additionally, as part of the Tech Programme events, the Best Peer-Reviewed Paper Award was presented to Frank Schultz, Florian Strau

Details
Spain - The Cafe Teatro La Cerdanya near Barcelona, is an exceptional restaurant, combining traditional and international cuisine, a cocktail bar and a theatre. In order to guarantee quality sound and lighting for all locations, different LD Systems, Cameo Light and Audac products were installed.

In the restaurant, accommodating about 100 people, elegant and discreet Audac ceiling speakers have been chosen to provide an elegant and subtle sound. After visiting the restaurant, guests are invited to make their way to the cocktail bar where they can round off the evening on comfortable couches, with good music and classic drinks.

To make good music sound even better, four LDEB82A loudspeakers from the Stinger series were combined with two Stinger Sub 12A G2 subwoofers. Six Cameo Flat Par Cans Tri 3W IR provide the perfect lighting. In the Private Dinner Room, audio systems from L

Page 3340 of 3465

Latest Issue. . .