UK - Four months on from the creation of its dedicated audio department, complete production solution specialist White Light continues to receive much interest in the new range of audio products and services it now offers alongside its renowned expertise in entertainment lighting. This interest coincides with the completion of a number of high-profile audio projects across the event and installation sectors of the market.

"It has been an astounding launch", comments Lee Dennison, White Light's head of audio. "From the day we announced our expansion into audio, with a hand-picked team of audio experts added to the team at White Light, more than £300,000-worth of brand new audio equipment from leading manufacturers including Clear Com, EM Acoustics, Full Fat Aud

Switzerland / USA - Barix will introduce the next-generation of its Simple Paging solution for fixed and mobile paging over the IP network at InfoComm 2015, retaining its core simplicity and functionality while enhancing interoperability across greater public address systems.

At its core, Simple Paging reproduces live announcements from a desk or on the move (via a Barix Simple Paging app) with absolute clarity, giving end users an intelligible and flexible paging and communications tool. At InfoComm, Barix will demonstrate integration with emergency notification and background audio systems, bringing additional value to systems integrators who wish to marry multiple IP applications over a common networked platform. Barix will demonstrate these features at Booth 5059 on the InfoComm exhibit floor.

In addition to configurable emergency notification and background music sockets,

USA - QSC, a leading manufacturer of signal processing, digital signal transport, computer control systems, power amplifiers, and loudspeaker products for nearly five decades, has introduced its SPA Amplifier Series.

QSC has developed a powerful yet affordable amplifier series to meet the audio amplification needs in boardrooms, conference rooms, and other corporate spaces where multiple speakers are in use.

"We are pleased to answer requests from our loyal customers for an amplifier solution that brings the power and sensation of our live-event amplifiers into the boardroom," said Joe Pham, President and CEO. "Our SPA Amplifier Series is Energy Star compliant and offers flexibility to integrators with two amplifier solutions. The SPA2-60 offers two channels of Low-Z output into 4Ω or 8Ωs, but it can be bridged to provide 70V or 100V output. The SPA4

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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 - Sound Technology, Harman distributor in the UK/ROI, has announced the appointment of Stuart Strachan to the newly established role of live sound project engineer.

With a remit to demonstrate and develop awareness of Harman's new generation of JBL, Soundcraft, AKG, Crown, Lexicon and dbx products for the professional live sound industries, the appointment strengthens Sound Technology's technical team, bringing specific industry technical knowledge in-house, and providing local UK support in addition to Harman's European and Global teams.

Stuart brings experience of live sound projects at some of the UK's most famous venues including Wembley Stadium, Wembley Arena, Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall and the Queen Elizabeth II Olympic Park. His breadth of experience includes music gigs, corporate product launches, West End theatre, sports events and large-scale orchestra

USA - Country music shed its restrained image years ago with today's country artists requiring the same big impact rigs as full on rock acts. A testament to that more upbeat evolution was this year's StageCoach Festival, where production company Visions Lighting dressed the two largest stages in brazen big beam looks from Elation Platinum BX and Platinum Beam 5R Extreme fixtures.

Country music fans from across southern California and beyond gathered April 24-26 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, for the sold out festival, which featured mainstream country artists Tim McGraw, Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton along with lesser-knowns. A relative newcomer to the country music festival scene yet already one of the seasons' most anticipated events, StageCoach has grown to become the US's biggest grossing country music festival.

Todd Roberts of Visions Lighting supplied

China - Chang'an Dream was the name of a performance held recently in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, to welcome Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

A traditional Tang Dynasty welcome ceremony awaited the Prime Minister, where he was greeted by Chinese president, Xi Jinping at the watchtower of the south city wall, before the two leaders enjoyed the specially staged event in the ancient city's gate tower. This was rich in colour from more than 300 lighting fixtures provided by PR Lighting.

Mostly installed at the top of the old wall, they were made up from a mixture of the popular XL moving head series, and comprised a combination of XL 1500 Spot; XL 1500 Wash; XL 1500 Wash/Beam and XL 1500 Beam. Ranging from 250W up to the powerful 1500W lamp sources, the series comes with a choice of magnetic or electronic ballast, and boasts features such as advanced

Germany / USA - Just in time for the first infoComm participation of Sommer Cable as an exhibitor in Orlando, FL, the German specialist for professional, high-quality cables and connector technologies has introduced a variety of new products in its Cardinal DVM electronics line.

The increasing demand for larger bandwidths and higher resolutions of AV products was the main driver behind the development of these products. All new devices are fully 4K compatible. The highlight in the new product range is the HDMI Engineers kit with HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2 support.

Peter Rieck, key account & distribution manager at Sommer Cable states, "We look forward to our first-time participation at infoComm as an exhibitor, and will arrive with many new products in our luggage. Together with our North American colleagues Nina Jolly and Martin Ucik, I will be available to interested custome

UK - Lighting control expert Avolites will debut its new Arena console and Optical Titan Net Switch to UK theatre professionals at the ABTT Theatre Show this month.

The new Avolites Arena - which has already caused a buzz at Prolight + Sound and PLASA Focus Leeds - hits stand B34 at Alexandra Palace, 24-25 June.

"With Arena you have the creative tools you need to make your mark on theatrical productions," says Avolites sales director Koy Neminathan. "With 40 precision playbacks, a secondary touch screen with adjacent rotary encoders, six LCD legend displays, and an in-built four-port Gigabit network switch, Arena is ideal for theatres and larger venues."

The theatre-specific features in Titan have been revamped for Version 9, with substantial improvements to the tracking and move in dark tools. Syntax users will find that this functionality is vastly enha

UK - As part of The Royal Albert Hall hall's continued development, in 2013 Richard Martin Lighting (RML) installed a lighting rig to the Elgar Rooms - a relaxed self contained function room that holds 350 people located on the third floor of the building. The room regularly plays host to jazz and comedy nights. It is now so established in it's our right that it holds annual events such as the Bluesfest and Red Christmas Cabaret.

RML has been working with the Hall and its technical team for years and the Elgar Rooms has been a good way to cement this relationship. As the 'Official Sponsor of the Elgar Rooms' RML provides a mix of Alpha Spot and Wash to help enhance atmosphere and enrich the mood of the specific performance or simply as a dining room.

"To be associated with such a prestigious venue as the Royal Albert Hall is extremely exciting and it has been wonderful to

Austria - Rental and production company MartinKames.com has added Elation's award-winning Sniper multi-effect light as well as Elation Cuepix WW blinders to its rental inventory. "We chose to stock the Sniper because we are always looking for new effects as our aim is to offer our clients something unique that has never been seen or done before," stated Martin Kames, owner of the company that he founded in 2009. "In general, we are very sceptical when buying new gear. Elation however offers several innovative ideas which we can relate to while maintaining reasonable pricing."

The Sniper, a hybrid beam, scanner and laser simulator in one, is striking a chord with lighting designers and rental companies who seek a creative new tool to work with. It won a PLASA Award for Innovation last year and is finding service on a growing number of shows and events, as well

Canada - Built for the Commonwealth Games in 1978, Commonwealth Stadium is Canada's second largest outdoor sports venue. Seating 60,000 fans, the stadium hosts soccer, Edmonton Eskimos football and other sporting and entertainment events.

When Commonwealth was built, most stadiums utilized an end-zone, scoreboard-mounted loudspeaker system. However, to minimize neighbourhood noise bleed, consultant Ken Dickensheets of Dickensheets Design in Austin, TX, designed the original system as a central loudspeaker array housed in a unique metal pod. The pod was supported by four large aircraft cables and could be lowered to the ground for service.

This system served the stadium for several decades with voice-range audio. However, modern sports fans and associations like FIFA now expect full-range audio for music and clear announcements that are loud enough to be heard over crowd noise.

USA - In 2013, Blue Valley Baptist Church concluded that the best way to fulfill its mission of reaching more followers would be, not to expand its existing 650-seat facility, but to become a multi-site church comprised of a family of smaller congregations. A big step toward this goal was taken last year when BVBC acquired a second church in nearby Olathe, Kansas. Two hundred and fifty parishioners from the original Antioch campus agreed to switch locations, giving the new site, known as the Ridgeview campus, a ready-made congregation from day one.

But although attendance wasn't an issue, the 1980s-construction Ridgeview building presented its own set of challenges. Desperately in need of an overhaul, it was remodelled and repurposed to resemble the church's original Antioch facility, giving BVBC a consistent look across campuses. As part of this renovation project, the lighting

USA - QSC has introduced the Q-SYS Core 110f, the latest addition to the Q-SYS line-up of network audio solutions, which are built on modern Intel-based technologies and a Linux Real Time Operating System. The new, smaller Core 110f brings powerful yet affordable software based audio processing product to the corporate AV market.

"Q-SYS products will shape both QSC and the convergence of AV and IT," said Joe Pham, president and CEO. "The Q-SYS Core 110f delivers a seamless collaboration experience in boardrooms, conference rooms, and other corporate spaces where businesses need to focus on solving their problems instead of concerning themselves with the AV technology. They can rely on QSC for solutions built around performance, reliability, ease of use-backed by people who care."

The Core 110f will allow AV integrators and IT managers alike to deliver seaml

World - When the Indian Ocean tsunami devastated Southeast Asia in 2004, rap-rockers Linkin Park endeavoured to leverage their international fanbase to assist. Shortly thereafter, they founded Music for Relief: a charity that helps artists and fans connect to provide relief for natural disasters around the world.

The organization's vital mission is to mitigate and prevent the damaging effects of these disasters through environmental initiatives including forest preservation and tree planting. Linkin Park has remained instrumental in raising funds for Music for Relief, and recently worked with Sennheiser to provide several SKM 2000 wireless handheld transmitters with MME 865-1 capsules for an auction fundraiser - including some autographed by the band.

"When a natural disaster occurs, many people out there want to help in some way but don't know how," says Kimberly Hu

USA - KV2 Audio has announced a new national distributor for the US, namely, New York based company Plusmusic US Inc. Clients operating in the New York EDM market have already engaged Plusmusic to supply them with some large KV2 systems and that has aroused considerable interest in KV2 products.

Committed to providing the best possible support and service for KV2 Audio customers nationally, Plusmusic US has engaged John Krupa's representative network, ISI and well known New York sound engineer, Simon Nathan has been contracted to oversee the brand and provide technical support.

"In collaboration with ISI we have established a strong and credible team nationally to support and service the US market on behalf of KV2 Audio," said Stefano from Plusmusic US. "KV2 continues to grow globally especially as more and more people discover the unquestionable sound quality o

UK - International lighting designer Hartley T A Kemp has turned to the versatile colour changing of Philips Selecon's LED range of luminaires for the world premiere of Peter Gill's new play As Good a Time As Any.

Shown at the Print Room at the Coronet, Gill's play is centred upon eight London-based women and comprises five choruses in which they recount their life experiences through interwoven monologues.

Kemp specified 12 Selecon RAMA LED Fresnel, four PLprofile1 and eight PLcyc1 luminaires to complement the tungsten-halogen rig, giving the opportunity to fade between colors and from saturated to tint.

"During each chorus, the actors speaking sat facing the audience, while the others sat facing upstage. In between each chorus they changed position," explains Kemp. "The set, designed by Bruce McLean, was a 9.5m-wide painting that hinted at the journey

UK - Penguin Media Solutions is providing a two day UK training course in association with AFMG to introduce professional users to SysTune.

SysTune is the proven real-time audio analysis software by AFMG. It was developed especially for live sound applications and for years has been setting the standard for professional real-time measurement and display of impulse responses, transfer functions and other data.

Today, SysTune is widely accepted not only in pro-audio live sound but also by installed sound professionals as well as in the industry.

The course will be headed by veteran SysTune user and AFMG Instructor Pasi Kokkonen. Pasi will cover such topics as measurement fundamentals, SysTune setup, multi-channel measurement, virtual EQ, system alignment, phase and group delay.

The course will take place on Wednesday 1 and Thursday 2 July 2015 at LSH Spaces, Berkshire Road,

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) 's Lighting division has supplied a range of LumenRadio products to Edinburgh-based Black Light, to create a wireless DMX connection for lighting up the city's Melville Monument as part of the recent International Science Festival.

The event, called Light Fantastic, took place from sunset to sunrise between12 March and 28 April 2015. It invited visitors to Change the face of the Edinburgh skyline with a Tweet! Organisers encouraged the public to Tweet their favourite colours using the hashtag #lightfantastic, which would then change the lighting state at the Melville Monument automatically.

Black Light invested in a LumenRadio CRMX Nova TX2 RDM transmitter, four CRMX Nova transmitters and four outdoor-rated receivers, plus ancillary antennae and cables which were utilised on this event.

Heading up the team on the pro

Luxembourg - The Philharmonie - home to the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra - is located on the Kirchberg plateau in the City of Luxembourg and is one of the highest profile cultural venues in Europe as well as a masterpiece of modern design by architect Christian de Portzamparc, its 823 white steel column façade creating a natural filter for those entering a world of music.

The Grand Auditorium can accommodate between 1250 and 1500; a Chamber Music Hall (Salle de Musique de Chambre) has a 313 capacity and a smaller Espace Découverte (Discovery Space) theatre seats 180. All things technical throughout the Philharmonie - including stage lighting, audio, video, staging and rigging and all productions - are co-ordinated by stage manager Frank Reinard.

The Philharmonie purchased 16 x Robe LEDWash 300s in 2014 with which they are delighted.

Staging around 430 shows and

USA - Audinate will have a high profile at the upcoming InfoComm 2015 show in Orlando, where its much-anticipated Dante Via software will be showcased on booth 827. In addition, Audinate will feature a #DanteEverywhere social media contest that will give attendees a chance to win an Apple Watch and other prizes by visiting Dante partner booths.

On the show floor, Audinate will be demonstrating Dante Via, billed as "a revolutionary new software application that extends audio networking to include USB, FireWire and Thunderbolt-enabled audio devices, as well as any audio application". This software, says the company, transforms computer audio interfaces and soundcards into networked devices that can connect with each other and with over 400 Dante-enabled products.

In the demonstration, Dante Via will bridge multiple audio devices and applications directly to an audio ne

Switzerland/USA - Merging Technologies' Ovation 6 now brings the power of an integrated 3D rendering engine, for use with both replayed sounds and an almost limitless number of live inputs, says the company. The 3D engine now in Ovation is set to "completely change the way AV installers and live events production staff will plan their coming projects".

Ovation consolidated its position in 2014, with an impressive roster of new users relevant to InfoComm attendees. Major new museum installations, live events, theatres, opera houses realised that the combination of reliable and repeatable operation coupled with the ease with which all parameters can be programmed and interfaced with other devices, provided compelling reasons for specifying Ovation.

However, the industry's requirements move ahead at a pace and sound designers were creating ever more realistic soundscape

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