USA - Calibre has appointed Mike Novak as sales director for North America. Novak hits the ground running with the Calibre New Product Preview Showcase event in Las Vegas revealing a One Canvas Solution incorporating the Calibre LEDFusion Pro with splicing features across multiple screens.
Novak is based in Buffalo, New York. He has taken up the position at Calibre from Daktronics, where he managed various verticals including airport and transit, out-of-home advertising, spectaculars and reseller/AV groups, and developed new markets and revenue streams.
“The Americas is the single largest market for growth in high-performance LED systems and solutions,” says Steve Su at Calibre. “I’m delighted to welcome Mike Novak to the Calibre team during our rapid growth phas

Germany - ARRI has announced the addition of the Orbiter Fresnel lens to the already large pool of Orbiter optics, making this LED luminaire even more versatile. Combined with Orbiter’s ARRI Spectra light engine, the high-end optical system is suited for cinematic application, broadcast studios, as well as theatres or live productions.
Creating a precise light spot with a soft single shadow, the new Orbiter Fresnel lens delivers true Fresnel output with a real Gaussian field of light. The light output of Orbiter with Fresnel lens is comparable to the ARRI L-Series L10 and True Blue ST2/3 with 2000 W Tungsten bulb.
Despite its large aperture, the Orbiter Fresnel lens housing is compact (approx. 340mm x 380mm x 370mm and lightweight (4.5kg / 9.5lbs). Its lens diameter of 285mm equals that of the True Blue ST2/3 and T5.

UK - Brompton Technology has announced two major feature advances as part of its Tessera v3.4 software release: Extended Bit Depth and Stacking. “These features enhance our already compelling feature-set, which is well-established as the processing of choice for both major live events and film and television production,” says Brompton’s CEO, Richard Mead.”
Extended Bit Depth unlocks higher PWM bit depth output with a free firmware update for all existing and new panels fitted with the Brompton R2 or R2+ receiver card. Up to 3.3 additional bits of precision improves low-brightness performance – reducing visual artefacts and bringing out additional detail and nuance in dark areas of the image. This substantial increase in dynamic range offers a significant boost in performance that is hard to ignore for ICVFX and other LED on camera applications.
With Extended
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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

USA - At this week’s InfoComm in Las Vegas, Audinate introduced Dante Brooklyn 3 audio networking module and Dante Fremont 3 AV networking module. The new modules are pin-compatible replacements for the popular Dante Brooklyn 2 and Dante Fremont modules and have been redesigned to ensure continuous availability while delivering support for current and future Dante features.
Samples of both modules will be available to manufacturers in Q3 2022 and will start shipping in production quantities in Q4 2022.
The Dante Brooklyn module family is the most widely deployed implementation of Dante, and is used in hundreds of mixing consoles, DSPs, amplifiers, and much more. The Dante Brooklyn 3 audio module is available in 8x8 to 64x64 channel SKUs, delivering ultra-low latency networked audio in a small footprint and supporting the complete suite of Dante audio features.

Spain - The LightShark range of DMX-based hardware lighting consoles is now supported by more than 100 video tutorials, all of which are designed to help users get the most from these versatile products.
Spanish manufacturer Equipson, the company behind LightShark, has created this resource so that customers can explore the full functionality of the range. Starting with basic introductory tutorials, the videos take users through numerous features covering topics such as creating groups and palettes through to connectivity with external routers and larger networks. There are also advanced tutorials that cover subjects such as importing fixture profiles, working with LightShark's built in scheduler and creating complex colour effects.
Juan Jose Vila, COO and CMO of Equipson, says: "Our video tutorials are highly informative and very simple to follow. By delving deeply in

South Africa - Blue Array Productions, a professional rental and production company, has invested in two Fenix Stage Hercules 8 front-loading lifting towers supplied by DWR Distribution. The units were put to work for the first time at Liefde by die Dam, a festival attracting 8 000 revellers and held recently at Emmarentia Dam in Johannesburg, where Blue Array supplied the audio solution.
The Hercules 8, made from aluminium, is the tallest tower by Fenix at 8m high. The system lifts line array systems, trussing or LED screens with a maximum load of 300kg from the floor and is height adjustable.
“We initially tried out the smaller AT-906 Fenix towers, only to find that we had some weight limitations which forced us to go for the bigger towers,” explained Nathan Thiart, senior sound engineer at Blue Array. “It was a happy coincidence because we definitely had a ne

Chile - The city of Viña del Mar is renowned for its colonial architecture, vibrant nightlife, and the annual Festival Internacional de la Canción de Viña del Mar (Viña del Mar International Song Festival).
Coupled with a Mediterranean climate and beautiful, abundant greenery, the city, nicknamed Jardín Ciudad (Garden City), is one of the country’s most-visited spots. In 2010, a devastating 8.8 magnitude earthquake severely damaged some of the city’s best-known buildings, including the heritage site Teatro Municipal of Viña del Mar.
Today, the Teatro been fully restored and fitted with the most advanced L-Acoustics Kara sound system in the country, delivered by L-Acoustics certified provider distributor for Chile, VGL.
Built between 1925 and 1930 by famous architects Renato Schiavon and Aquiles Landoff, the Teatro Municipal de Viña del Mar features a f

Europe - More AV has extended its Funktion-One distribution to include Belgium and Luxembourg, making it the loudspeaker manufacturer’s representative for the entire Benelux region. The company, which is headquartered in Zoetermeer, Netherlands, has been a key Funktion-One partner for almost 20 years.
More AV, which is led by founder Remco van der Werff, will build on the strong foundation left by outgoing distributor, Soundsystem.be, whose owners - Tia Broodcoorens and Lieven Pillaert - have decided to close the company and pursue personal projects. For Pillaert, that includes working closely with More AV in a consultative capacity.
Funktion-One’s Ann Andrews comments: “We’re delighted that More AV has grown its operation and taken over the distribution of Funktion-One throughout Benelux. We’ve known Remco and his team for a long time and know they will cont

South Africa - Stuart Andrews will take on the position of projects and operations manager at DWR Distribution.
“I’m so positive and happy to be back in South Africa and at DWR,” said Stuart, who has lived in Rwanda and Dubai for well over a year since the COVID-19 pandemic. “I think this move had been on the cards for some time, to be honest. I had wanted to change out of the rental and production side of the industry for some time now, and I’ve always been close to the people at DWR; a company respected within the industry and one with extremely high standards in terms of service delivery and client focus.”
Andrews has enjoyed a vibrant career in the live events industry for the past 30 years. He started working as a sound technician in 1992 while completing a bachelor of commerce degree at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, juggling between his st

Europe/USA - Aligned with InfoComm Show 2022, Shure has announced that microphones from its Stem Ecosystem, Stem Wall, Table, and Hub, have received full certification with the Barco ClickShare Conference room system.
Stem Ceiling is also compatible with the Barco solution. With this certification, Shure and Barco have partnered to make it even easier for users to seamlessly turn any Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) meeting space into a fully integrated hybrid meeting environment, where they can combine the high-quality audio of Stem Ecosystem with easy-to-use wireless conferencing.
This certification marks a significant milestone for the Shure Stem Ecosystem, a complete audio solution that provides users with the freedom to create, manage, and scale their collaboration space audio for an effortless experience in any room. With Stem, you can mix and match devices to create

Europe - Polish-based OB studio specialists, 4vision, has been nominated by BroaMan as recipient of this year’s Best Distributor award. The integrators have frequently turned to BroaMan fibre transmission solutions when carrying out OB fit-outs for the country’s leading broadcasters.
BroaMan sales distribution manager, Dawid Somló, said the company were worthy recipients. “4vision are the most experienced OB van builder in Poland, and when they are awarded a project or a commission for a new truck they routinely propose our solutions. We are in contact with them on a weekly basis and thanks to this relationship sales activity has been especially high amongst OB van users.”
Somló was impressed that despite Covid lockdown, the company maintained online meetings with customers (and in-person where possible) explaining the benefits of BroaMan systems and advocati

USA - Outline’s Newton FPGA processor played key operational roles at Coachella and Stagecoach Festivals. Both returning after two-year layoffs caused by Covid, the back-to-back festivals and their big crowds returned to the Californian desert in style this year.
With its roots going back to 1993 and still held at its original venue, the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, and now one of the world’s largest music festivals, The Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival was staged over two consecutive weekends in April, once again showcasing an array of established and emerging artists.
Presented the following weekend in the same location, its sister production The Stagecoach Festival is a leading event for folk, mainstream country, bluegrass, roots rock, Americana and alt. country.
As they have been for every Coachella since 2000, Camarillo-based Rat Soun

Zimbabwe - Napoleon Nyanhi knew what kind of look he wanted to project for the music video he was directing on 30 April for The Vine music collective in Harare. It had to be warm, intimate, and all-encompassing to reflect the familial spirit of the Grammy winning Soweto Gospel Choir and other artists in the ensemble.
What Nyanhi was less clear on was how he was going to create this image on a small music video stage that would hold as many as 78 performers at a time. That was when he reached out and called his friend Tatenta Gaylord Rushwaya of Events Evolution.
“Napoleon’s request was straightforward; he wanted a beautiful harmonious stage,” recalled Rushwaya. “But when he told me how many people would be on it, the request was suddenly not that simple.”
Taking the challenge, Rushwaya contacted his friend and colleague Blessing Bero and described some

USA - Grammy Award winning, Puerto Rican mega-star Bad Bunny kicked off his 36-date sell out El Último Tour Del Mundo 2022 from the Ball Arena, Denver in February. Featuring a show design as stylishly unconventional as the artist himself, lighting designer Alain Corthout, chose to deploy a battery of VL10 Beamwash luminaires from Vari-Lite.
“Bad Bunny takes an alternative approach to his live performance, so the show design had to be as outspoken as he is,” explains Corthout. “I was looking for a lighting workhorse that would offer the ultimate in creative versatility, while delivering consistent, high output light, even at the more saturated end of the spectrum. I also needed a versatile palette of effects. The VL10 Beamwash fixtures gave me all of this and more.”
Challenging the conventions of traditional show design, Corthout had to accommodate the fact tha

UK - The much-anticipated and publicised ABBA Voyage brings the 70s supergroup back to the stage in a blend of the virtual and physical worlds.
Several years in the making, the ABBA Voyage show opened on 26 May 26 in a purpose-built arena designed by Stufish Entertainment Architects at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London. The production adds a new element to the live music experience by blurring the lines between CGI and reality, with The Guardian calling it a “jaw-dropping avatar act that’s destined to be copied”.
Solotech worked under the direction of director Baillie Walsh, working alongside Aniara’s technical producer Nick Levitt and technical director Joe Frisina, and collaborating with concert producers Svana Gisla and Ludvig Andersson, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) and TETRO and Greenwall’s Fredrik Stormby to provide audio, lighting, and v

UK - PLASA Show is returning to West London from 4-6 September, and those wishing to attend can now register via the event's website.
Taking place at Olympia London’s Grand Hall, the entertainment technology tradeshow promises to deliver some of the latest technology, product demos, and delve into key industry issues. There will also be four showfloor theatres running over 60 sessions on a range of topics across the three days.
The event will provide plenty of opportunities for networking with leading companies from audio, AV, lighting, rigging and staging, each one showcasing popular products and new releases. Some of the brands returning this year include Robe, Ambersphere, ETC, AC-ET, Adam Hall, L-Acoustics, Sennheiser, Chauvet Professional, Leisuretec, Highlite, Polar and

Platinum Party - An average of nearly 12 million people in the UK watched the Platinum Party in the Palace on BBC One on Saturday. The concert saw stars Diana Ross, George Ezra, Queen, Elbow and many others perform in front of a Buckingham Palace crowd that included members of the royal family. It attracted the BBC's biggest audience of the year, peaking at 13.4 million. The BBC states: "The Platinum Party at the Palace on BBC One was the most watched programme of the year so far."
Going Green - Directors and designers working at London’s National Theatre will receive additional pay if they contribute to the organisation’s sustainability goals, artistic director Rufus Norris has announced. The National Theatre boss said the financial incentive reflected the extra work that is required to deliver on the environmental objectives set out in the Theatre Gree

UK - North Star Engineers has appointed Jonathan Barker as creative director. Barker joins the North Star Engineers leadership team and will focus on the creative direction of the company, client liaison, and promotional content strategy and new business development.
Barker brings with him more than 30 years’ experience working in the cruise ship entertainment industry, with notable projects on board the QM2 and with Carnival UK, P&O and Cunard. HIs varied career has also seen him write two musical theatrical productions and multiple music productions for television and film.
“After more than thirty years working in the entertainment world, with a particular focus on the cruise ship industry, I’m thrilled to be working with North Star Engineers,” says Barker. “The team is highly ambitious and innovative with an excellent work ethic - I'm delighted to be o

USA - Harman Professional Solutions has announced an expansion of the Control Contractor Series of installed audio solutions, unveiling several new loudspeakers and subwoofers at NAMM.
The new products include wall-mounted speakers, pendant speakers and landscape speakers and subwoofers. These new solutions empower installers with increased freedom to design sound systems to meet any architectural requirement.
The new speakers and subs give installers versatile options for building new systems or augmenting existing systems. All products feature premium multitap transformers for use in distributed systems, and are switchable for direct operation.
“JBL’s new loudspeakers and subwoofers really check all the boxes for integrators,” says Rick Kamlet, senior manager, installed loudspeakers, Harman Professional Solutions. “They provide power and clarity in a r

USA - AtlasIED is hitting the road to bring its wide selection of audio and mass communications systems to the doorsteps of integrators, end users and IT professionals. The AtlasIED Sounds Like Success Tour kicks off on 24 June in Lenexa, with visits to cities throughout Missouri, Ohio, Indiana and other key Midwestern destinations, wrapping up this leg of the tour in Louisville on 8 July.
At every stop, visitors will have the opportunity to safely board the trailer and experience AtlasIED’s award winning selection of audio systems- designed to deliver mass communication, high intelligibility announcements and paging, background music, IP-based visual and audio communications and more.
The Sounds Like Success Tour experience tailors to vertical markets, making it easy for visitors to hone in on the solutions matching the needs of their particular application - wheth

USA - Founded in 1940, the Church of St. John the Divine in Houston, Texas, today hosts 900 attendees on any given Sunday across its traditional, contemporary and family services.
While the church’s sanctuary is ideal for traditional hymns, providing amazingly long reverb times, there were notable challenges with an aging sound system. With such challenges, a new system was needed. Brightengale - formerly Houston Sound Service - was selected for the project through a recommendation from another area church.
“The prior installation leaned heavily on digital signal processing and beam steering to fill the room with intelligible sound,” said Adam Keho, system designer at Brightengale. “Acoustically, the room is fantastic for pipe organ or choral music but it’s very difficult for speech intelligibility. When the system was first installed, it was only designed t

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