UK - Earlier this month Creative Technology (CT) supported delivery of the first-ever Earthshot Prize awards ceremony which took place at Alexandra Palace in London.
This event was introduced by HRH Prince William and hosted by Clara Amfo and Dermot O’Leary with Sir David Attenborough joining as special guest.
The ceremony also featured music performances from artists such as Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, KSI and Yemi Alade, and Shawn Mendes. Coldplay’s performance, from outside of Alexandra Palace, used energy powered by 60 cyclists.
Working for long-standing client BBC Studios Events alongside The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, CT provided a circular, gloss LED floor to the exact design specific by the client, working with them to bring their

UK - Situated at Boxpark Wembley, a 20,000sq.ft events space described as ‘the ultimate fan park destination’, Pop Golf combines crazy golf with 21st century pop music in a brightly coloured environment. This unusual playground is built on the belief that nothing brings people together like music and play.
Based on a concept devised by Smith & Devil, the venue features a course of nine pop-themed holes paired with a high-octane Martin Audio sound system, provided by partners, Middlesex Sound & Light (MSL).
Director and project manager Darrel Olivier looked no further than the company’s CDD6 / SX112 subwoofer combination, as he has many times in the past.
From Drake’s Hotline Bling to retro 80’s boomboxes and suspended cassette tapes, each hole is different and has been designed to offer the experience of stepping straight into a music vi

UK - Lighting designer Yenz Nyholm of New Illumination illustrated how imagination and a moderately sized lighting rig with 23 x Robe MegaPointes as its backbone can go a very long way on the current Level 42 From Eternity to Here tour.
Creatively, Yenz needed some seriously multi-purpose lighting fixtures to keep the looks and effects rolling, and with no video on the tour, lighting is the primary visual element. On the practical side, the whole rig had to fit into one truck, along with audio, backline, and catering; it had to be built each day by Yenz and one tech and look good in the venues with limited height or restricted flying!
“MegaPointes were a bit of a no-brainer,” states Yenz. “They are powerful, small, lightweight, versatile and my go-to fixture.”
Nine MegaPointes on the back truss are joined by 12 strategically deployed on the floor. Five o
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

UK - Under the ongoing redevelopment remit of BAFTA’s 195 Piccadilly headquarters, the charity engaged White Light (WL) to manage the installation of its new technological infrastructure.
Officially opening in 2022, 195 Piccadilly will be a creative centre for film, games and television and the central hub for BAFTA’s UK-wide, and global, learning and talent development programme. It will also provide facilities for all event needs, whether live, virtual or hybrid.
WL has been involved with the development of the ambitious project since its inception back in 2016. The scope included equipping BAFTA with its first ever dedicated learning space and state-of-the-art technology to help increase revenues, enabling its charitable remit to be fulfilled for years to come.
Based on a system designed by consultancy Charcoalblue, WL was appointed to devise an integrated

UK - New research by consultancies AECOM, Avison Young, Bristow Consulting and Buro Happold for Theatres Trust has revealed the extent of the work needed to make the UK’s theatre buildings sustainable.
Matching the current state of theatres against the costs of recent refurbishment projects, the research group has revealed that making a typical 600-seat theatre fully sustainable and accessible will cost £11m. Analysis of 100 representative UK theatres estimates that £1.1bn is needed to make them sustainable and suitable for modern audiences.
However, the research, which was presented at the Theatres Trust Conference 21 Making Theatre Sustainable, shows that this level of investment in 100 theatres would bring huge benefits, saving 6,500 tonnes of CO2 per year - the equivalent of 9,700 return economy flights to New York 2 - as well as £3.3m annual revenue savings f

Turkey - The first and only university in Turkey to focus purely on music education, Ankara Music University has invested in a 24-channel Audient ASP8024-HE console for its Music Technology department.
Head of Music Technology, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Abdurrahman Tarikçi specified the desk and states, “Audient products makes the end user feel secure with their accomplished team and technical service. It is a great advantage that Audient can offer products with similar performance to their competitors, for users with a more modest budget.”
With each studio doubling up as a classroom, Dr Tarikçi needed to be confident that the desk would be of good quality and durable, as well as suitable for educational applications. “One of the most important features for us is definitely the integrated patchbay system. Thanks to this, we can explain the signal flow chain in great det

UK - The leader of Dudley Council was “bowled over” with the life-changing opportunities being given to students at Resonance during a recent visit. Councillor Patrick Harley stopped by the higher education facility based within the DY5 Enterprise Zone at the Waterfront in Brierley Hill to find out how students will be working alongside global company Sports Technology (ST) at next year’s Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Game
ST is the specialist major multi-sports division of Creative Technology (CT) and has been appointed official provider of large video screens and audio services. Alongside LED and PA systems in the majority of the venues, ST will provide a broad range of audio-visual services including a flexible signal distribution network in every venue, providing a fully integrated IP based solution for all non-broadcast audio, video and data distribution.
As

China - Hangzhou is more than 9,000km from the shores of Lake Geneva, yet for four days in October the first Montreux Jazz Festival China successfully bridged both distance and cultural differences with the universal language of music. Also, to ensure the same sound experienced for 35 years on the shores of Lake Geneva, Montreux Jazz Festival China collaborated with Meyer Sound.
The festival was held from 5-8 October at the Sofitel Westlake Hotel, with the main stage outdoors on the terrace and a special immersive experience installed in the lobby bar. The live performances featured artists from six countries, though all currently reside in China, with musical styles ranging from jazz to pop, folk and R&B.
Although prudently limited in scope due to continuing COVID-19 concerns, MJF China’s first edition proved a success in terms of both audience satisfaction and

Germany - On 3 October, 200 drones took to the skies above Burg Giebichenstein in Halle (Saale) and assembled themselves into symbols and catchwords of German Unity.
The multimedia drone show by Jens Hillenkötter and his company JH Technology Arts was the highlight of the closing celebrations for German Unity Day, which were broadcast live on television. One floor further down - in the inner courtyard of the castle ruins - numerous moving lights from Ayrton set the scene for the multi-layered live setting in parallel.
"The castle ruin is a very special location and combines the historical with the digital, because the whole show is designed to be followed via TV or digital streams," says Jens Hillenkötter, who has already been responsible for numerous sensational light and drone shows in recent years. "The lighting design plays an elementary role here, because we not

UK - Mike Oldfield’s magnum opus Tubular Bells was performed live at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London this summer, in a series of performances forming a prelude to the celebration of the album’s 50th anniversary in 2023.
Tubular Bells – Live In Concert, with musical direction from Oldfield’s long-time collaborator Robin A. Smith, featured a nine-piece live band, with actor Samuel West replacing the late Vivian Stanshall as master of ceremonies. The music was brought to life on stage through a visual interpretation by the Circa Contemporary Circus, led by artistic director Yaron Lifschitz, with 10 acrobats presenting Oldfield’s work in its physical form, their movement woven together to reflect the music.
DiGiCo SD7 front-of-house and monitor consoles, plus an additional array of equipment, were provided by RNSS Ltd, the productio

South Africa - Located in Bedfordview, an affluent area within Johannesburg, the newly opened Body Action Gym is a six-star wellness facility which provides access to fitness equipment, personalised nutritional guidance and a lifestyle environment.
The gym boasts 5000 sq.m of cardio and weight training space; an array of dedicated aerobic, yoga, Pilates, HIIT and spinning studios; an open-air basketball court, boxing ring’ 50m sprint track and outdoor elite fitness training area—plus a kids area, in-house cafe and apparel shop.
Key focus was given to the various entertainment systems which needed to seamlessly integrate into the gym’s overall vision for the facility. And this was highlighted by a Martin Audio BlacklineX PA system.
John Greaves, audio specialist at Audiosure, the Martin Audio distributor, explained the various factors which led to the elabor

Australia - Codec specialist Tieline, based in Perth, Western Australia, have become the latest manufacturer to join the Ravenna community; a move which follows hard on the heels of the announcement of a new firmware release that adds Ravenna support to their Gateway family of codecs.
Tieline codecs specialises in streaming low latency, high quality audio over a range of wired and wireless IP transports and facilitate the integration of compressed and uncompressed IP audio streams around the broadcast plant.
“Ever since the days of POTS and ISDN, Tieline has always advocated for interoperability of equipment from different manufacturers,” said Charlie Gawley, Tieline’s VP Sales APAC/EMEA. “The world of IP is no different. It’s why our Gateway platform is AES67, ST 2110-30, NMOS and now Ravenna compliant, allowing devices using different AoIP protocols to con

Japan - Based in Shinjuku, Paddy Field is a rental company which supplies audio, video and recording solutions to a wide range of small-to-medium sized performing arts productions. When company founder Ryodai Tanaka was looking for a compact front of house system that would deliver quality sound, he turned to Alcons Audio’s pro-ribbon technology.
Ryodai founded Paddy Field in 2019, after 10 years as a freelance sound engineer. He was introduced to Alcons Audio pro-ribbon systems in July 2020, at a demonstration event held by Alcons’ Japanese distributor E’Spec Inc. Ryodai was immediately impressed. “The sound quality was excellent and, even at high volume, the high frequencies made the listening experience much more comfortable. At the same time, the bass sounded very tight,” he says.
Ryodai was looking to invest in a compact line array FoH system for Paddy

USA - When officials at Oaklawn Racing Casino in Hot Springs, AZ greenlighted a multi-phased expansion project, one of the big ticket items they wanted to add to the resort was a versatile event space that could host conferences, concerts and more.
As the vision came to fruition, the recently opened 15,000sq.ft event centre features the latest technology, including an ADAPTive PA system comprising 20 Anna loudspeakers and 12 Otto subwoofers from Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW). In addition, EAW monitors and side-fills were also employed on the project.
The task of equipping the 1,500-seat venue with the latest in AV technology, including a 1,900sq.ft stage with a large video wall, was given to full-service AV integration firm TMG Systems. Designed by Jerrold Stevens of Marsh/PMK International LLC, this is the second project TMG Systems has worked on with Stevens in which

USA - The Atlanta Braves hadn’t won a National League pennant since 1999, and few ‘experts’ expected them to do so this year, even though they managed to squeak into the post season playoffs. But baseball is, if nothing else, a game that has a way of turning improbabilities into realities.
Perhaps because of this, Mike Grabowski and the team at The Lighting Design Group were ready for anything when the Braves began their playoff against the favoured Milwaukee Brewers. Their interest, or course, involved more than baseball; as they were tasked with lighting the pre and post-game commentary for the National League Championship Series, between the winners of the Braves-Brewers and Dodger-Giants clashes.
“It was a bit of an unusual situation,” said Grabowski. “We didn’t know where we’d be going to light the first game of the NLCS, because of the way the ba

UK - When the Waterboys embarked on their current British tour, they did so safe in the knowledge that their new production supplier, Entec Live, would be able to provide the same integrated sound and lighting package as their old.
Entec, head of sound, Dan Scantlebury had brought the Waterboys into the fold, at the blessing of his previous company, dbnAudile. “They introduced us to the band owing to their heavy workload - and since the two companies have similar inventories it has been an easy transition. You generally find both L-Acoustics and d&b on tour riders, and we have the latter. In this instance they fielded two hangs of d&b V series, with a Soundcraft Vi7000 console at FOH and DiGiCo SD12 on monitors.
“The major advantage is that the band has one point of contact,” says Scantlebury, who was previously the band’s system tech. “Whether a soun

Romania - Interest and anticipation for the first SAGA Festival in Romania, a collaboration between two dance world operations – ALDA Events and Insomniac - was so popular that the site was changed up to a bigger venue on the land of aerospace company Romaero in Bucharest.
Helping create this electronic music festival experience and new chapter in Romanian live event history was Andre Beekmans and his team from Netherlands-based design practice, The Art of Light, who specified over 200 Robe moving lights for the largest stage - Source.
Eindhoven-based Andre created the production lighting designs and supplied programmers and operators for Source plus the two other big stages, Heat and Spark. With some stages in the open air, SAGA also took advantage of a selection of enormous airplane hangars on the site, which is still a fully functional working aircraft repair and

Denmark - DPA Microphones has released a new accessory, the MS4099 Mic Stand Mount, for its 4099 Core Instrument Mic. The company has also begun shipping the brown version of its new 4466 Core Omnidirectional and 4488 Core Directional Headset Microphones.
A flexible solution for mounting the 4099 onto any mic stand, the MS4099 can be used on both three-eighths inch and five-eighths inch threads. Borrowed from the design of other DPA mounting options, the barrel of the MS4099 mic holder makes it quick and easy to attach or remove the microphone. In addition, the mount can be turned for vertical or horizontal use, pending application. It is also compatible with the brand’s 4097 Core Micro Shotgun.
Now available in brown, the new 4466 and 4488 headsets feature the brand’s 5mm round microphone capsule and feature the design of the company’s groundbreaking 6066 Submi

Germany - With the current system update for the Prodigy series, DirectOut has introduced more new features. Prodigy.MP now features AutoMix, MirrorMode and the TruePeak Levelmeter.
With AutoMix, Prodigy.MP now supports the fully automatic mixing of different input signals – perfect for panel discussions or multi-language feeds at sport events. Tweaking of the control parameters helps to meet even complex requirements, e.g. particularly reverberant event rooms.
With the newly implemented TruePeak Levelmeter, Prodigy.MP now fulfills the requirements of EBU R 128. The TruePeak measurement allows reliable detection and display of inter-sample peaks.
In DirectOut's own MirrorMode, selected parameters of a Mirror Unit are automatically aligned with the Main Unit. Alignment allows immediate switch-over for seamless operation with the matching device configuration in

Italy - Powersoft has launched two new certified courses on its website, allowing users to gain knowledge about core technologies, DSP, and network connectivity solutions.
The two new courses, 201i and 201t are continuations of previous courses already available on the website, providing a more extensive look into topics such as Dynamic Music Distribution systems, Mezzo amplifier platforms, and WM Touch.
During the 201i course the user continues on the path started with course 101i, completing the explanation of all the windows and functions of ArmoníaPlus whilst learning how to manage the networking and control through Third-party plugins.
In the 201t course, Interactive Tuning is introduced, a tool that uses the potential of Smaart v8, allowing users to measure and align an audio system, even offline. There are also lessons on networking, and a more in-depth

USA - Founded in 1836, Emory & Henry College is consistently ranked among the nation’s best private liberal arts institutions. Central to the college’s southwestern Virginia campus is Memorial Chapel, a 500-seat church building that has served as host to thousands of worship services.
This past summer, Memorial Chapel was host to renovation with the installation of a new Danley Sound Labs point source sound reinforcement system.
“The previous installation used ceiling speakers that were installed 35 – 40ftt in the air,” said Justin Plaster of JMP Productions. “This prior design required the speakers to be quite loud to drive sound to event and worship service attendees. With the reverberant nature of the Chapel as well as the height and arch of the ceiling, this made intelligibility of the audio from those speakers very poor. The system was also quite d

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