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Estonia - The Estonian Traditional Music Centre (ETMC) is a venue which hosts international concerts, conferences, receptions, dinners, and parties.
Situated next to the historical Viljandi Castle ruins, the former 18th century granary was transformed into a contemporary concert hall and cultural hub almost 15 years ago. It incorporates two concert halls - the Grand Hall with a capacity of 400, and the Chamber Hall with seating for 80 - and boasts an extensive concert programme, including the renowned Viljandi Folk Music Festival. To celebrate the return of live events, ETMC has recently invested in a selection of new gear, including High End Systems SolaFrame Studio fixtures and an Ion Xe console from ETC.
In 2019, more than 100 concerts featured on ETMC’s roster, an

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Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem has returned to the West End 11 years after its last record-breaking, sell-out run. Mark Rylance reprises his role as the ebulliently irresponsible, anarchic Johnny ‘Rooster’ Byron, ably supported by the rest of the cast. The play is back at its West End home of the Apollo Theatre with a sound design from Autograph’s Ian Dickinson, this time featuring Reference Series loudspeakers from EM Acoustics.
“I did the show the first time around when it was at the Royal Court, followed by its subsequent West End iterations, so I knew exactly what was required,” explains Dickinson. “The Apollo is a beautiful theatre on four levels so, as ever, the priority was flawless coverage across all seats in the auditorium. The actors don’t wear microphones, so the PA system is there to deliver clear playback of the music and numerous effects used in t

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USA - Country artist Kane Brown returned to his hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee, on May 7 to play his first-ever stadium show at the Finley Stadium. Lighting and production design for the sold-out show was by Trevor Ahlstrand who used Elation lighting on the milestone event, including the company’s popular IP-rated powerhouse luminaire Proteus Maximus, all supplied by DCR Nashville.
Brown’s popularity has grown exponentially since debuting only a few years ago. Ahlstrand has collaborated with the artist since the first headlining arena tour, Live Forever in 2019, and served as lighting designer and programmer on the stadium show. Nick Chang served as lighting director.
Following the Live Forever tour, Brown managed to get in six shows with a new design from Ahlstrand before everything shut down due to COVID. The current touring design, which contin
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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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Top Ticket prices - Prices for top tickets to see West End shows have risen by 21% since before the pandemic, according to research by The Stage. The average top ticket price is currently £140.85, up from £116.09 in June 2019, the publication says. The most expensive show in the survey is Cabaret at the Playhouse, for which some tickets will set you back £303.80. But the research found that the lowest-priced tickets have risen by an average of just 3.3% since 2019, up to £22.56.
The most expensive seats for West End musicals now cost an average of £154.36, although that was a relatively modest increase of 3.5% since 2019, The Stage said. Plays had an average top ticket price of £114.69 - a jump of 38% compared with three years ago.
One factor in the high ticket prices for Cabaret was the redesign of the theatre to accommodate the produ

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UK - Severine Anvoner is Martin Audio’s new HR manager. Born and brought up in France, she has lived in the UK since 2001 and now considers both the country and the area of Bucks where she resides as home.
Anvoner has considerable experience in the corporate world including at Coca-Cola Enterprises and more recently at Seagate Technology. “But I realised that a new industry would provide a different challenge and I also wanted to move away from the big corporate world,” she admits. “Although there are many positives about big corporations, the downside is there are many layers of management, and I wanted to interact more, and become closer [to the workforce]. This industry is dynamic and exciting.
Unlike her previous trans-EMEA roles, at Martin Audio her challenge will be more UK-based, offering more flexibility and versatility than she has experienced previous

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USA - Markus Burger, coordinator of music technology at California’s Fullerton College has recently overseen the recording of a string ensemble library album by LA Philharmonic with composer/director Yuval Schrem, using a portable recording rig which included 32 channels of Audient mic pres.
Comprising two ASP880s and two ASP800 eight-channel units alongside an interface, this rig is used for a range of applications. This particular recording is currently being mixed and is due to be released at the end of the year.
“We took a mixture of Audient and Neve preamps with us this time so we had a variety of recordings to choose from,” explains Markus, confirming that the recording went without a hitch. “The Audient mic presets are bullet-proof. We’ve never had any issues with them in all the years that we have had them.”
A consistent champion of Audient,

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UK - Educational roadshows led by BlackTrax specialist Tom Boucher have been outlining to students the creative possibilities BlackTrax offers to live event professionals. Students have been bringing their ideas to life by using CAST’s innovative technology.
“Taking BlackTrax into an educational environment has introduced students to technology that they will come across in the workforce. It has given students the ability to create scenarios, ask questions and really get to grips with BlackTrax as a system and the numerous integration possibilities,” says Tom Boucher.
Many questions were answered, and the system was put to the test, right down to students calibrating a BlackTrax Real system themselves and learning how to get their educational wysiwyg license.
“I really enjoyed using the BlackTrax system, I thought it was intuitive and relatively easy,”

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The Netherlands - Jeroen van Geffen is a Dutch lighting designer with the multidisciplinary broadcast and event specialist company Chain. For a live TV broadcast production in a 360° degree venue, Jeroen chose to use a Follow-Me 3D SIX System. From his previous experience with the overall scalability and flexibility of the Follow-Me systems, including fixture independence, he knew that this would be the right choice for enabling his creative and challenging lighting design.
Jeroen first used the Follow-Me 3D remote follow-spot and performer tracking solutions about three years ago for the ZappAwards, the Dutch kids television series awards show broadcast from De Vorstin concert hall in Hilversum. Since then, Chain has overseen the Follow-Me 3D SIX system installation into the Studio 11 event location in Almere. It is here that Jeroen has recently been working with Follow-Me

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USA - Multiplatinum selling pop group New Kids On The Block (NKOTB) continues to wow fans with their MixTape Tour 2022 featuring friends Salt-N-Pepa, Rick Astley and En Vogue as special guests. Lighting designer Cat West of Flash and Trash Works, Inc. selected 108 Ayrton Intellipix R Creative Solutions as a central part of the high-energy, party look of the show.
Boston natives, the quintet NKOTB has sold more than 80m albums worldwide. Their 2019 tour by the same name - their biggest since reuniting in 2008 – was a huge success and pioneered the concept of a super-sized show with multiple guest acts. The new arena-based MixTape Tour is scheduled to play more than 50 dates across the US from its kick-off in Cincinnati in May to its finale in Hawaii in August.
Cat West programmed the band’s MixTape Tour 2019 and their Fenway Park and Merriweather Post Pavillion even

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Poland - Cavatina Hall, which opened at the beginning of the year in the city of Bielsko-Biała, is the first concert hall in the country to be built and managed entirely from private funds.
This multi-functional building, combining office and cultural spaces, is set over six storeys on more than 9,000sq.m and includes a recording studio as well as a 1,000-seat concert hall.
Its AV infrastructure is woven into a sophisticated digital/analogue network, designed around an Optocore backbone, feeding a multiplicity of signals to an L-Acoustics L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal sound system from a pair of roving DiGiCo Quantum 338 consoles, operating from four different locations.
These were specified and delivered by system integrators Audio Plus, along with the latest stage mechanics and AV technologies, including sound and light tracking, variable acoustics and visual inf

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Europe - The 2Cellos duo of Luka Šulić and Stjepan Hauser is currently playing their Dedicated world tour - billed as their ‘final’ as 2Cellos, the format in which they shot to fame and prominence in 2011 with lighting designed by their long-term LD, Crt Birsa.
Crt has worked with the band since 2014 and wanted this design to be completely different to anything that had gone before. Rather than the full-on rock ‘n’ roll of the previous tour, this sees a more architectural approach with the lighting, which includes Robe MegaPointes and Spiiders at the heart of the rig.
“It’s all about defining the performance space and creating a series of shapes and different areas rather than bashing out dramatic lighting for effect! My thinking started with creating environments and rooms in which they play,” he explained. He presented a couple of different co

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UK - Shure was the chosen digital wireless system for the stars at Big Night of Musicals by the National Lottery.
At the end of January, Jason Manford hosted a celebration of the best of musical theatre at the AO Arena in Manchester, Big Night of Musicals by the National Lottery. The show was packed with performances from the casts of the UK’s biggest West End and touring shows and collaborations including Beverley Knight, Keala Settle star of The Greatest Showman, and Olivier Award winner, Sam Tutty.
Joining them to perform some of the most popular songs from the theatre were the casts of Dreamgirls, Back to the Future, Dear Evan Hansen, Tina - The Tina Turner Musical, Bat Out of Hell, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s School of Rock as well as Disney shows The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and

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Romania - Lighting designer Andre Beekmans of TAOL, in collaboration with Andrei Predut of Apart in Bucharest, used a large complement of Claypaky fixtures to light the We Are One concert in the city’s National Arena to benefit humanitarian causes in the region.
The day-long concert on 12 March drew an estimated 50,000 people to the stadium and more watched the YouTube livestream and broadcasts on Romanian TV and radio. Organised by SAGA Festival, Pro TV, KISS FM and the City Hall of Bucharest, the event featured local and international artists, including Armin van Buuren, Tom Odell, Jamala and INNA. It raised more than €750,000 for the Red Cross.
“Quick thinking and fast problem solving are a given at any time in this line of work, but for this particular project everything needed to be on steroids given the virtual no heads up regarding what would be hap

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USA - With summer productions back in full swing, Bandit Lites has announced the hiring of Kelly Feild, Tim Keller, Hayley Elliott, and Katie Feltes as full-time, touring lighting technicians.
“Bandit is pleased to announce the addition of these four great people to our full-time team, on the career path.” says Bandit Lites chair Michael T. Strickland. “Please note that three of the four hires are women, another indication of our focus on gender equity. But do not believe that is what this is about, it is not. We bring on the best and the brightest and Kelly, Katie, Tim, and Hayley are just that – stars! We thank thme for joining the team and look forward to long, accomplished careers for each of them!”
Feild graduated from Belmont University with a BBA in Music Business before working full time as event staff for Belmont's Curb Event Center arena. Feild the

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UK - Sennheiser has announced Celeste Jones as the winner of this year’s Student Scholarship programme of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA). Jones will receive financial support for tuition and gain access to Sennheiser’s expertise and global network of contacts.
Sennheiser’s strategic planning manager, Tim Sherratt, was involved in the selection process and congratulated this year’s winner of the sought-after scholarship. “It never ceases to amaze me just how talented LIPA students are,” he says. “The quality of this year’s submissions was once again excellent. In selecting Celeste there is no doubt that she is deserving of this award. She is a wonderfully engaged and knowledgeable individual who possesses that rare equilibrium balance of the creative and technical mindset. I look forward to watching her grow over the coming years.”

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USA/Europe - Following a successful launch at the Prolight + Sound tradeshow in Germany in April, Obsidian Control Systems has announced availability of the NX1, an ultra-compact yet full-featured lighting controller designed to handle a wide variety of shows using the intuitive Onyx lighting control platform. The NX1 also features an expandable playback wing (NX P) along with a 10-digit keypad (NX K) that combined with the NX1 creates an even more powerful and flexible console.
Designed for smaller to medium projects where an intuitive console is needed without a PC, the NX1 will be appreciated by rental companies and the mobile lighting programmer alike. The NX1 joins the compact yet fully-integrated NX2 and Obsidian’s flagship NX4 under the Onyx lighting control platform.
The NX1 is a small yet powerful console where playback and programming interfaces are fully

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UK - Gearspace.com commemorates its 20th year. What started as a hobby in 2002 by founder Jules Standen has grown to more than 400,000 members, with over one million discussions and 13m replies. The forum was born out of the analogue-to-digital crossover in the early 2000s that inspired so many enthusiasts to build their own studios.
Gearspace covers pro audio gear - from inexpensive microphones to half-million-dollar mixing consoles.
Over the past 20 years, the forum has expanded to include reviews, classifieds, interviews, new product alerts, pro audio events and, most recently, feature articles.
Gearspace rebranded last year to welcome a more diverse user base across the industries it serves. “It feels great to be moving forward with a progressive and inclusive name,” says Jules, "making it easier for professionals, novices, educators and hobbyists to un

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Europe - Yamaha Corporation has joined the SDVoE Alliance, a non-profit consortium of technology providers, which is collaborating to standardise the adoption of ethernet for transporting AV signals in professional AV environments.
Yamaha has been manufacturing network equipment in Japan for more than 25 years. In 1987, the company introduced its first large-scale integrated circuit (LSIC) for communication, based on its digital audio processing technology, and went on to develop its own network devices. Adopted in a range of applications, including offices and retail stores, Yamaha network switches quickly became renowned for their reliability.
More recently, the company has developed network switches for the professional audio industry, which are chosen for their stable, multi-channel transmission over distance.
Software Defined Video over Ethernet (SDVoE) is

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USA - The former White Stripes frontman currently wowing fans with Jack White: The Supply Chain Issues tour has 82 Ayrton Magic Blade FX fixtures delivering effects lighting on stage. Matthieu Larivee, who serves as the tour’s creative director and lighting and production designer, obtained the Magic Blade FXs from Solotech Nashville. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton lighting in North America.
The world tour celebrates two new Jack White albums, Fear of the Dawn and Entering Heaven Alive. The North American leg kicked off in Detroit in April and will wrap at the end of August in Kansas City. It then heads to South America with much of the same lighting rig, including the Magic Blade FXs. Each Magic Blade FX features seven RGBW high-output LEDs that can be individually controlled to create airborne virtual scenery or illuminate s

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USA - Haim’s current Women in Music Pt. III tour - in support of their Grammy-nominated 2020 album of the same name - is the second international headlining jaunt by the California trio of sisters.
The tour began in Las Vegas in April and will take them to more than two-dozen scheduled stops across the US and then onto Canada and Europe.
The full rig for the tour, sourced by the Production Resource Group’s (PRG) Los Angeles office, encompasses 32 K2 enclosures, flown 16 per side, with 12 Kara per side as out-fills. Eight more Kara line the stage lip as front-fills, with four ARCS II boxes on hand as utility fills as needed. Meanwhile, 16 KS28 subs are deployed to reinforce the K2 with added low-end extension. Everything is powered by 36 LA12X amplified controllers running on an AVB network through a pair of L-Acoustics P1 AVB processors.
But not every

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USA - James Suit has re-joined ACT Entertainment’s regional sales team for the New York City Metro area. Previously, he had served as northeast regional sales manager for the brands distributed by ACT.
“We’re very excited to have James back on-board and to take advantage of the expertise, values and skills that make him such a good fit for the ACT team,” says Doug Mekanik, ACT Entertainment director of sales.
Suit began his professional career in 2005 when he joined 4Wall in New Jersey as a moving light tech. He spent seven years in system integration and sales for Starlite Productions in Moorestown, New Jersey. He later moved to Ushio America where he served as regional sales manager for entertainment, covering the Eastern US for the lighting manufacturer and distributor.
“I’m happy to re-join ACT to continue building relationships with designers an
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