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Australia/USA - RØDE Microphones has announced the acquisition of US-based pro audio pioneer Mackie from Transom Capital Group.
“I am absolutely thrilled to welcome Mackie to The Freedman Group’s roster of iconic audio brands,” says founder and chairman Peter Freedman. “They are true legends, with a pedigree of live sound expertise that is simply unmatched. Today, RØDE and Mackie are both leaders in audio, and we share the same passion for creating innovative, high-quality products with a strong customer focus.
“With this acquisition, The Freedman Group is now a premier audio technology company offering world-class products to an even wider range of customers, from up-and-coming content creators to professionals working in live production and everyone in-between.”
Since 1989, Mackie has been a leading designer and manufacturer of pro audio products

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Sustainable Theatre - Bristol Old Vic has installed solar panels on its roof as part of its commitment to sustainability. A redevelopment in 2019 allowed the installation to happen, which was carried out by Solarsense. Productions and operations director David Harraway said: "The phase of refurbishment we completed five years ago helped ensure our building was working hard to be as sustainable as possible, but this was a missing piece until now."
He explained that previous renovations have seen the building install LED lighting, a community greenhouse, automated building management systems and passive ventilation, which all contributed to the venue’s commitment to sustainability.
Stephen Barratt at Bristol’s Solarsense said: "We pride ourselves on a solution-focused approach to buildings like the Bristol Old Vic. Working around an entire theatre set that arrived a
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UK - The University of the Arts London (UAL) recently sought to update its audio-visual systems in classrooms at three key campuses. London-based integrator, Tateside, was approached directly to work on the project.
“The project encompassed classroom refurbishment works at South London-based campuses and a full installation at a further campus in High Holborn,” explains Joby Morris, audio visual and networks specialist at Tateside.
“We selected Tateside because it was clear from the start that they really understood our vision for using NDI and Dante to create learning environments that had the flexibility of AVoIP without the vendor lock-in of other protocols,” explains Tom Lynch, technical manager at UAL. “Also, as a London-based university, working with a London-based AV Integrator is super valuable and quite rare.”
The most significant part of t

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Germany - The 12th season of the annual Rocket League esports Championship took place in August 2023 at Düsseldorf’s PSD Bank Dome. The tournament marked its biggest season yet, with $6m in prize money up for grabs.
bright! studios - a visual design and technology studio based in Frankfurt - created engaging visual ‘hero shot’ content for the tournament using innovative show control software from Stage Precision.
“We were tasked with creating modern player introduction videos that were shown before each team to hype up the crowd,” explains Leon Herche, creative producer at bright! studios.
“The team at Rocket League used a completely new approach at this year’s tournament. We began by building different scenes in Unreal Engine and playing the content through LED walls. We used motion control systems from Marc Roberts and used the tracking data to

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UK - As Optocore dealers fac365 end the year, they can reflect with satisfaction at having further helped to establish the company’s portfolio, notably Festival Box - not merely during the festival season - but for major international tours with bands like The Killers and Coldplay, with four Festival Boxes making up Coldplay’s control package and network infrastructure.
One major source for this success has been fast-expanding rental house, Solotech UK - which has a historic relationship with Optocore - supporting production with gear supplied from four warehouses spread across the UK.
“We have sold a large number of items to Solotech over the past two years,” confirm fac365 operations manager, Richard Newall, “most recently an M8 [MADI] package for a touring playback rig and X6Rs for their Control/Drive racks.”
In the north of England, prior to beco

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UK - Exterior lighting solutions provider DW Windsor has unveiled its Light Responsibly initiative to support and promote responsible lighting practices.
Announced at the LiGHT 23 Expo in London, the new initiative aims to provide lighting specifiers with the tools and guidance needed to eliminate light pollution, conserve energy, cut waste and help protect biodiversity. It consolidates several long-standing principles the British luminaire manufacturer upholds and underlines its commitment to delivering sustainable lighting solutions.
The initiative outlines five key areas where DW Windsor can assist lighting professionals, helping to educate key stakeholders and support considered lighting designs. It includes the adoption of precise optics and light shields, warmer colour temperatures, adaptive lighting controls, highly efficient LEDs, and the embracing of circular

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China - Located in Lujiang, within China's Anhui Province, the Shishi Zen Temple serves as a place of worship and to enhance both the vocal and musical experience, the Zen Temple made the decision to embrace cutting-edge audio technology. After conducting thorough research, they opted for the Martin Audio active MLA Mini array, complemented by Martin Audio's CDD series, as the basis for their new PA system.
The choice of the MLA Mini was based on its sound quality and its ability to optimise coverage, consistency and control of sound for a room's own acoustics, dynamics and the position of the listeners. This was particularly crucial as it ensured that both those near the Buddha statue at the heart of the Zen Temple and those worshiping at a distance could enjoy the same high-quality music and Dharma teachings.
The CDD series serves as an auxiliary system, delivering c

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UK - Manchester-based dbnAudile has served as event technology providers for The Warehouse Project ever since the series of popular club nights debuted in 2006. This year, seeking a new linear lighting effect that could do more while ensuring operation in wet conditions, the company turned to Elation’s versatile Proteus Rayzor Blade.
The Warehouse Project, which runs from September through New Year’s Eve, features acclaimed DJs and musicians as well as less established artists, and is continually rated as one of the best dance/DJ club venues in Europe. dbnAudile handles audio, lighting, video and rigging for the project’s run, which has been held in the refurbished Mayfield Depot in Manchester since 2019.
Pete Robinson project manages the operation for dbnAudile and has served as lighting designer since The Warehouse Project’s inception. He explains that the

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Denmark - Hip hop band, Suspekt, appeared in a one-off date at Copenhagen's 47,000 capacity National Parken Stadium in September. Suspekt is renowned for playing with cool lighting effects and Ayrton was delighted that its Zonda 9 fixtures were chosen for the dramatic lighting system that included 168 Zonda 9 Wash and Zonda 9 FX fixtures.
Zonda 9 Wash is the first luminaire in a new family of Ayrton products devised for stage lighting, equipped with a high-performance 40W LED source with RGB+W additive colour synthesis. The lighting was supplied by VIGSØ, Denmark, and the striking lighting and stage design was provided by Johnny Thinggaard of CMY.
Thinggaard elaborated on his choice of lighting: “The concert was a one-day event and the band's biggest show to date. I chose to use the Zonda 9 Wash because of its large light surface - I really like the way that the la

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Japan - As one of Japan's top five film giants, Toei Tokyo is renowned for its comprehensive business in fields such as film, television, animation, manga, and music. At the end of last year, the company constructed Japan's largest virtual production hub, Toei VP Studios, marking the first independent operation of this type of facility by a film company in Japan.
Anticipated to reach full operational status in 2024, the studio showcases a state-of-the-art LED wall comprising AOTO LED panels and powered by Brompton Technology LED processing.
Toei VP Studios offers and practices efficient shooting methods, featuring the largest LED stage and one of the most experienced 16-strong teams in the country. The facility spans 640sq.m and utilises eleven 4K Tessera SX40 LED processors, along with 24 Tessera XD 10G data distribution units.
“We have chosen an LED video p

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UK - Following successful spoken word tours in 2019 and 2021 to promote his autobiography, in 2023 Status Quo’s Francis Rossi set out to do something a little different. Bringing anecdotes and acoustic versions of well-known songs to intimate venues throughout the UK, Francis Rossi Tunes & Chat has been the perfect task for the Yamaha DM3 digital mixing console.
Featuring Rossi with studio collaborator/guitar tech Andy Brook and a pair of electro-acoustic guitars, the two-part, 101-date tour visited 400-600 capacity theatres in many of the UK’s provincial towns and cities.
Long-term Status Quo Front of House engineer Andy May was asked to mix the shows, but his Yamaha PM5D - a veteran of many Quo tours - was obviously over-specced for this one. Instead he chose a Yamaha DM3, which packs a lot of technical punch into a tiny footprint, just right for mixing on ho

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UK - Production Futures, the organisation founded to create opportunities for young people to learn, train, network and develop real careers in every sector of the production industries, has announced a partnership with Cheshire College - South and West.
The arrangement sees the college’s programme leader for events and technical theatre, Angie Berwick, become Production Futures’ education ambassador, a role which it is hoped will lead the way to collaborations with a variety of education institutes across the UK.
Angie is well-placed to take on the challenge, combining as she does her Programme Leader role with more than 20 years’ experience of running her own events business. She will provide expert strategic advice to Production Futures on the needs of young people in education, as well as working with education providers to raise awareness of the opportuniti

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Switzerland - The Zurich Open Air Festival, held over three days in suburban Glattbrugg, features artists from an array of genres, from ballads to electronic beats, and hard rock anthems to indie tunes. Jazz, blues, and folk join the diverse mix for good measure. The artists on stage at this year’s (10th annual) rendition of the festival, included Robbie Williams, Zara Larsson, Bastian Baker, The Killers, The Chainsmokers and Paul Kalkbrenner.
The production design on the 2023 festival’s substantial main stage also embodied a very diverse range of creative inputs. Defined by two high towers, each with a large vertically-oriented video wall at its base, the towers were connected by horizontal rows of lights. Other rows of lights extended from each wall and sloped down to smaller stage left and stage right columns.
Contributing to the rich visual panorama was a colle

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UK - In its 25th year, live event production workers charity Stagehand, has launched the Christmas fundraiser, #I Love Live 3.
This year's campaign recognises the immense challenges faced by the live event production industry and aims to provide crucial support to UK-based touring and festival crews dealing with serious physical or mental ill health. #I Love Live 3 launched on Friday 1 December, with tickets available now.
Previous I Love Live events have featured Liam Gallagher’s Les Paul guitar, Glastonbury Festival tickets, and Dave Grohl's signed DW ICON snare drum, raising over £900,000 for stage crew impacted by the pandemic.
This year, #I Love Live 3 will see signed set lists from a star-studded line-up including Paolo Nutini, Prodigy, Nile Rodgers, Bring Me The Horizon, Duran Duran, James Bay, New Order, Natalie Imbruglia, Everything Everything, Bloss

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India - Gujarat’s Premier Navratri Celebrations organised by the Rotary Club of Bhuj reaches new heights, as Phoenix Networks deployed their Meyer Sound Panther line-array system for the first time for a public event.
The vibrant tapestry of Hindu culture is woven with a myriad of festivals, each celebrating different facets of life and spirituality. Among these, Navratri stands out as a radiant and joyous occasion, marking the triumph of good over evil; with the festival spanning nine nights dedicated to the divine feminine in various forms - each representing strength, wisdom, and prosperity.
This year, the Rotary Club of Bhuj in Gujarat orchestrated a 10-day cultural extravaganza at the Sandalwood Villa & Clubhouse Grounds in Mirjapar. Nestled in the heart of Gujarat, this sprawling venue, measures 550ft in length and 260ft in breadth, setting the stage for a

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Greece - DirectOut and Audio & Vision have joined forces to establish an exclusive partnership for distribution in Greece. With this strategic alliance, Audio & Vision will now serve as the official distributor of DirectOut products in Greece.
Audio & Vision has established itself as a reliable provider of premium AV products and services in Greece since the beginning of their activities in 1998.
"We are proud to add DirectOut to our distribution portfolio in Greece," says Mr. Alkis Kotsifas, general manager of Audio & Vision. "With a 25-year track record in the professional audio, video and lighting solutions sector, we have been committed since the foundation of our company to provide our customers with the highest quality of products and services. We seek the best partners worldwide to achieve our goals, and our new partnership with DirectOut is a te

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UK - TAIT has announced plans to open a central London base in early 2024 at Tileyard London in the heart of King's Cross. This new office follows the trajectory of TAIT’s extensive growth both in the UK and globally.
TAIT’s current UK locations include super-factories, equipped for heavy entertainment engineering, in Wakefield in West Yorkshire and Haverhill in Suffolk, as well as training and R&D facilities in Hampton.
Born through strategic acquisitions of Stage Technologies, Delstar, Brilliant Stages and Kinesys, TAIT’s UK based team have played a key role in some of the most notable live experiences of the last 45 years, from the flying car in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to the Royal Opera House to the Rolling Stones; the Olympics to Outernet.
TAIT’s global team across 20 offices, work together to deliver live experiences across concert tourin

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USA - Masque Sound has once again teamed up with sound designer Joshua D. Reid to bring the travelling productions of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical to life with a custom audio equipment package, for both its East and West Coast tour.
Featuring the hit songs You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch and Welcome Christmas, The Grinch discovers there’s more to Christmas than he bargained for in this heartwarming holiday classic. Max the Dog narrates as the mean and scheming Grinch, whose heart is “two sizes too small,” as he decides to steal Christmas away from the holiday-loving Whos.
In designing the sound for this year’s Grinch tour, Reid's goal was to create a flexible and efficient touring sound system that could capture the magic of Dr. Seuss' classic holiday narrative while providing the highest level of clarity for aud

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Lithuania - The current reconstruction and expansion of the famous Lithuanian National Drama Theater (LNDT) in Vilnius includes a complete sound system makeover, masterminded by Sonus Exsertus.
This €19m euro upgrade of a building founded in 1940 is its largest in 40 years. Last year a New Hall was opened, followed by a Small Hall for experimental and small-scale productions. With the existing newly refurbished Great Hall, the LNDT - which is one of the country’s foremost publicly funded cultural institutions - this will provide an overall seating capacity of 1,200.
Once fully commissioned by the end of summer 2024, the three separate spaces will have their audio interconnected through an Optocore AutoRouter smart fibre patchbay, which will provide enormous routing flexibility in a fully redundant solution.
Sonus were already earmarked for the project’s Ne

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Austria - For its global premiere on the stage of Vienna's Ronacher Theater, the musical Rock me Amadeus - The Falco Musicalwas illuminated using Prolights' Astra Wash.
This musical, with evocative scenes, intricate choreography, and dazzling costumes, demanded an extraordinary lighting setup to properly showcase the spectacle and celebrate the life of the musician Falco.
The design, crafted by the lighting designer Howard Harrison and musical lighting supervisor Lucas Berger, featured various mobile wash lights from Prolights' Astra Wash series - specifically, the Astra Wash19Pix and Astra Wash7Pix.
Harrison's choice to incorporate the Astra Wash19Pix into the lighting rig on both the ceiling and side walls was not only for their versatile light effects but also for their decorative potential, thanks to the integrated pixel ring.
Meanwhile, the Ast

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UK - This week, Celestial’s epic drone light show, Evolution, was showcased for the first time ever at Gloucestershire County Cricket Club in Bristol to a select audience in preparation for launching the show to the general public in December. Drone light technology is being used to tell ‘the greatest story of all time’ - The story of our evolution.
The story, narrated by Tara Fitzgerald, starts with the Big Bang, the explosive inception of the universe and journeys into the emergence of the sun, our solar system and the planets that inhabit it.
The cosmic voyage accompanied by a cinematic soundtrack, guides viewers through the origins of conscious life on Earth, from the humble beginnings of single-cell organisms to the awe-inspiring reign of the dinosaurs and culminates in a celebration of the diverse tapestry of life on Earth today.
Evolution

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USA - LIT Lighting in Tempe, Arizona recently specified, designed, sold and installed new lighting and production equipment in the Footprint Centre, home arena of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury. The installation, which comprised a new entertainment lighting solution, included Ayrton, MA Lighting, MDG and RapcoHorizon brands, all exclusively distributed in North America by ACT Entertainment.
“Pro basketball is not just a game anymore, it showcases elements promoting crowd activation and interaction, which at the Footprint Centre include a dance team, half-time performances often by A-list artists, and a dunk team with trampolines and the team mascot,” says LIT Lighting project manager Casey Jones. “There are a ton of moving pieces that now require entertainment lighting solutions to guarantee that fans have a better experience at games in every po

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USA - Front-of-house engineer Stanley Soares (known for his work with Sepultura, Devin Townsend, Motörhead, and Meshuggah) and producer/monitor engineer Chris Rakestraw (who produced/engineered the last two Megadeth albums) have chosen to mix Megadeth’s recent stadium tour with Waves plugins via the Waves SuperRack plugin host, seamlessly integrated in their DiGiCo Quantum 338 and Avid Venue S6L consoles.
Soares’ current setup when mixing Megadeth includes a DiGiCo Quantum 338 in conjunction with Waves SuperRack, Waves’ Mercury, the Studio Classics Collection and Abbey Road Collection bundles, all powered by two Waves Extreme SoundGrid Servers.
His setup involves three dedicated computers: the first hosts Waves SuperRack, the second manages recordings and virtual soundcheck through a DiGiGrid MGB interface, and the third handles Smaart and walk-in music duties.

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Italy - Siena’s Concerto per l'Italia is an annual classical music event that takes place in the city’s Piazza del Campo each July. With its 102m-tall bell tower, and 2,500 seat-capacity, Piazza del Campo hosts various events, from seasonal initiatives to music festivals, throughout the year.
The Piazza is an essential cultural hub in Siena and the wider Tuscan region, attracting visitors from all over the world who come to enjoy the square’s historical and architectural beauty, and to experience the vibrant energy of the city's public life.
Over the course of three consecutive summers, the square has been the chosen outdoor setting for the Concerto per l'Italia, featuring classical orchestras and soloists from around the world. In 2023, the concert was directed by Daniele Gatti, and featured renowned musicians such as pianist Lilya Zilberstein, and the Orchest
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