USA - Dean Mattson mixes FOH for progressive rock pioneers Yes and is currently out with them as they celebrate the 50th anniversary of their seminal Close to the Edge album with an extensive tour.
The production recently visited the historic Warner Theatre, just a couple of blocks from the White House in Washington DC, where the house system is an Outline Butterfly rig.
Dean comments: “I've used the Butterfly system in the Warner a few times now and it always sounds great. Ishai [Ratz, the house sound engineer] has that rig singing like a classic Sinatra song. He was a big help in making sure I utilised the system in a most efficient way and those new subs they installed are nice. Gives the system a little more thump without becoming boomy.”
Mixing such a well-known album and especially for audiences that know the music intimately can be a real challeng

USA - Mesa Community College Arizona’s 462-seater Performing Arts Centre held its first full production in November 2022 using an upgraded rig of Vari-Lite LED luminaires from Signify. Dominating the new array of lighting fixtures were the VL2600 Profile, VL800 EventWash and VL800 ProPar, which have dramatically reduced power consumption at the centre and provided smooth, rich colours for a premiere run of The Addams Family musical.

The college’s modern, architecturally striking Performing Arts Centre, located just east of Phoenix, opened in 2014. It was initially rigged with a range of traditional Fresnels, pars and tungsten wash and profile fixtures, which were ageing and power hungry. Kyle Rivieccio joined Mesa Community College in 2019 as PAC technology coordinator/master electrician, and he was later tasked with delivering a lighting rig

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Germany - Started in 2002 as a football tournament involving medical schools and facilities at a group of German universities, the MediMeisterschaften, on the airstrip of Obermehler-Schlotheim Airport, has grown into a major music and sports festival, attracting up to 30,000 visitors from throughout Europe. University football is still played at the four-day festival (Cologne Pes Piller and Tuebingen were the mens and womens champions respectively this year), and there are many other activities too, but much of the time at this event is devoted to enjoying electronic music in a variety of forms, with plenty of dancing.

Capturing the spirit of the music on the main stages and adding more energy to its performance was a production and lighting design by Materie Event Production, which has been the main contractor for the festival’s entire technical planning and implem

USA - Meyer Sound has announced an aggressive rebooting of its education programme, with a full agenda of workshops and training sessions scheduled at the Berkeley headquarters as well as at other locations in the US and overseas, and the formation of partnerships with leading educational institutions.

Many of the sessions will be led by two long-time fixtures in the company’s education programme, director of system optimisation Bob McCarthy, and senior technical seminar instructor Mauricio ‘Magu’ Ramirez, with this duo now joined by another of the pro sound industry’s leading educators, senior technical support and education specialist Merlijn Van Veen.

Meyer Sound also has announced new and extended renewal partnerships, most notably with Full Sail University in Florida, The University of California, Irvine (UCI) in California, and the Universit

Europe - The ESD range of two-way and three-way passive loudspeakers from KV2 offers a wide variety of loudspeaker solutions ranging from the ultra-compact ESD Cube, suitable for peripheral reinforcement in bars, theatres, clubs, houses of worship, museums etc., right through to the powerful ESD15 and ESD36.
ESD15 is capable of acting as a standalone PA/monitor system due to its excellent bass response, whilst the ESD36 has found favour with AV rental and production companies as well as for the theatre and worship market as a powerful, full-range solution with excellent vocal intelligibility in a compact format. KV2 has now extended the range with the addition of the ESD8, which slots neatly between the existing ESD6 and ESD10.
As its name suggests, the ESD8 is a compact passive 2-way, high output full-range loudspeaker incorporating an 8" trans-coil woofer and a 1" co

USA - River Oak Church started as an offshoot from another church around 20 years ago in a school auditorium. They were soon able to start a multi part building project, first building a gymnatorium, and later offices and classrooms. In 2020, the growing church broke ground on a new, purpose-built facility in Chesapeake, Virginia, to house their burgeoning ministry.
When Justin Fugett was tapped to help bring River Oak Church’s new facility to life in 2021, he understood the importance of the intercom system from his experience as a freelancer working with local broadcast organisations and universities. River Oak was looking into getting wireless beltpacks to add to their system and Justin decided that Clear-Com’s Arcadia was the right fit for the church.
“Honestly, I feel like every church needs to know about Arcadia – it’s the absolute perfect fit for so ma

USA - One of the highlights of New York’s holiday season is the unveiling of the seasonal windows at the City’s Bloomingdale’s department store.
Providing the sound for the opening show which marks the occasion and sees crowds thronging the streets on the corner of 59th Street and Lexington Avenue in midtown Manhattan, is Frost Productions. The service company’s association with Bloomingdale’s extends back to 2016, but this year the store upped the ante, featuring Billy Porter and a full five-piece band, spread across a 40ft stage set in front of four of the feature windows.
Bloomingdale’s theme for its flagship store this year was Best Holiday Ever and Frost Productions’ team leader, Mike Alvarez, had no hesitation in specifying a Martin Audio MLA Mini in four hangs for the 20-minute show, knowing they could get the sound exactly where they wanted for th

USA - Production company Platinum XP has staked its success on the ICLive X from Renkus-Heinz. ICLive X, the intelligent evolution of the small-format line array, is fast becoming a sound solution of choice for production professionals.
ICLive X (ICLX) is a complete system consisting of three combinable, steerable array modules and one matching subwoofer. Recently, Platinum XP deployed a system featuring 2 ICLXL digitally steerable loudspeakers and two ICLX-118S subwoofers for the Women’s Intersport Network (WIN) for KC Awards in Kansas City, Missouri, successfully covering more than one thousand guests in the 2,700sq.ft auditorium with clear, intelligible audio - all without having to fly speakers or adhere to strict sight lines.
“We’re not like other rental production companies, and ICLive X is unlike any loudspeaker system you would typically look at for this

Vietnam - 1 Sound, a recently launched loudspeaker manufacturer, has announced the hiring of two sales representative Leonardo Dani and Leonardo D’Andrea dedicated to setting up a distribution network in EMEA for the United States-based brand.
The company has appointed Sonos Libra Vietnam, Hanoi, to be the 1 Sound distributor in Vietnam. The showroom is fully equipped, showcasing 1 Sound’s Cannon Coaxial Series with installation subwoofers, like the MiniSUB5 and the discreet Floor Subwoofer, along with a Tower System.
Mr. Cuong and the Sonos Libra team started organising demonstrations for their area's companies immediately and have expressed their excitement about the future of audio with 1 Sound’s loudspeaker technology. “The audio market in Vietnam is growing fast, leading to consumer demand for high quality and good origin products. Personally, I feel that

France - The former 2,500-year-old fortress of Ensérune reopened its doors to the public in early July 2022 after two years of major renovation work. This historical site transformed into a museum once again to present a rich archaeological collection to the public in a completely redesigned scenography and lighting.
Scenographer Marion Lyonnais (Fakestorybird) imagined an immersive journey as one would stage a show.
Lighting designer Jean-Noël Cordonnier from Lights and Design chose the Prolights EclMiniProfile LED spotlights with 19, 26, 36 and 50° lenses to light up the exhibits. “The lighting is an active part of the scenography: the combination of several colour temperatures, or the choice not to illuminate the whole object,” said Cordonnier. “The EclMiniProfile was the perfect fit for us thanks to its 28W Cree LED, the choice of two-colour temperatures

Chile - The recently opened Falabella Chile Inmobiliario at the Open Plaza Kennedy shopping centre in Santiago, has a simple, but very ambitious, goal: to offer customers a culinary experience in surroundings that make them feel special. The 6,000sq.ft space, which is located on the fourth floor of this centre, is well on its way to doing just that, serving as home to 12 restaurants offering a variety of dishes from Chile and around the world.
The centre features an immersive and transformative lighting design by the Piedra Luces studio, headed by lighting designer Fernando Piedrabuena. Featuring 150 Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Piedra Iluminación, which acquired the fixtures through Chemtrol Chile, the lighting creates an enchanting mood throughout the entire area.
Acclaimed for lighting of the first Zaha Hadid tower in South America, the Piedra Luces st

USA - One of Seattle’s largest lighting rental houses, R90 Lighting, often turns to Elation Professional products to light a wide scope of projects and has recently added more Elation fixtures to its rental inventory. The concert and event lighting design firm emphasises the latest in LED technology in its inventory of stage lighting fixtures, a principle the company has held since its founding 10 years ago.
R90’s new acquisition includes an LED package of Fuze MAX Profile, Fuze Wash FR, Proteus Rayzor 760, Artiste Picasso and Paladin Panel luminaires.
R90 owner Joe Cole has followed LED’s development closely over the last decade and has been enthusiastic about the opportunities it has opened up. “Early on, LED was useful for uplighting and wash lighting but wasn’t really viable as a spot or profile,” he stated. “But then we noticed Elation moving towards

USA - The Rock Believer world tour kicked off in March in Las Vegas, with a residency by the Scorpions at the Planet Hollywood Hotel & Casino. Manfred Nikitser has been there from the start, where he has been the lighting designer for the Scorpions family since 2015 and, for the current tour, relied on the the Prolights ArenaCob 4FC LED blinders, among other fixtures.
"The Scorpions are a classic hard rock band, but they have always had a very modern approach to their tour and set designs," explains Nikitser, who also worked for the band as a video programmer and operator at the beginning of their long-standing collaboration. "Even on the previous tours, the stage was very clean, without the typical amp setups in this genre. In addition, a lot of work is done with LED screens.”
For the current Rock Believer tour, however, the Scorpions consciously opted for a cla

UK - Sony Electronics’ DWX series wireless mics and transmitters is expanding with the introduction of a new digital wireless plug-on transmitter, the DWT-P30, which will replace the current DWT-P01N.
Suitable for studio, electronic newsgathering (ENG) and location sound, the new transmitter complements Sony’s DWX series slot-in receiver and bodypack transmitters to create an all-inclusive digital wireless microphone system, for camcorder use including UniSlot and on location recording.
New features include: 375kHz spacing high-density simultaneous multi-channel operation and wideband tuning at a maximum of 148MHz, high sound quality with CODEC MODE4, selectable RF outpower power (2mW/ 10mW / 25mW) and long battery life of approximately six hours.

Rock band Kasabian has enjoyed a 25-year career that includes a busy touring roster and seven studio albums. With guitarist Serge Pizzorno now full-time lead vocalist and new album The Alchemist’s Euphoria written and released, the band has embarked on a new chapter, underlined by a comprehensive European and UK arena tour.
As it has before, Kasabian’s audio production is relying on DiGiCo, its next generation Quantum technology allowing the audio team to easily navigating the dynamics of Serge’s new role and take advantage of the advanced processing suite for automating monitor console duties and eliminating outboard.
Supplied by Britannia Row, long-term DiGiCo users, FOH engineer, Rob Waite, and monitor engineer, Jamie Hickey, specified their consoles of choice; the compact Quantum 338 at FOH and a Quantum 5 for monitors, with two accompanying SD Racks.

UK - London Film Studios is one of the newest studios available for hire in the London area. Based in Enfield, the facility has four stages available for productions to use. When Scenic Supplies Plus were contracted to provide the blackout curtains for all the studios, they turned to Doughty Engineering for curtain track.
Richard McKitty, sales director, Scenic Supplies Plus commented: “We knew immediately, based on the spec of the job, that Doughty was the right company to manufacture the track we needed. We needed to kit out all the studios – the smallest being just over 2000sq ft and the largest over 5000sq.ft so it was quite a task.”
Work started in Studio B as studio A was already in constant use. This is a dedicated green screen studio so Scenic Supplies Plus was tasked with installing a U-shaped track to feature 2 sets of curtains – one side black and 1

USA - World Stage Lighting co-owners Dwight Wood and Devin Sunderland have been providing concert audiences in the Pacific Northwest with sonic experiences for decades. The company was given the opportunity to create a next-level experience for a recent performance by rock band Smash Mouth at Seven Feathers Casino Resort and provided a custom PA featuring the Anna and Otto ADAPTive system from Eastern Acoustic Works (EAW).
Industry veterans and long-time users of EAW equipment, Wood and Sunderland were immediately impressed when the company introduced its new Anna ADAPTive PA system. “When we first heard Anna and saw what it could do for us and our client’s events, we were blown away,” says Sunderland. “The timing was right, so we seized the opportunity to purchase products from EAW’s ADAPTive line. It’s an amazing system.”
The duo purchased 16 Anna three

UK - Robbie Williams’ 22/23 tour is in support of his latest album, XXV, which sees 25 years of hits re-worked and orchestrated by the Metropole Orkest.
Brit Row were once again able to deliver consistent quality across equipment and crew for the British pop star. “Brit Row are absolutely fantastic,” FOH engineer Joe Harling, enthuses. “These are difficult times, but we’ve received everything we’ve asked for and a team of professional crew at the top of their game. I couldn’t be happier.”
To cover the full spectrum of the show's journey through the last two and a half decades, Harling needed a versatile and robust console from Brit Row’s extensive inventory.
“I’m using a DiGiCo Quantum 7 console, which is on an Optocore loop with the monitor console, also a Quantum 7, and all our stage infrastructure. With so much going on and with

USA - The 2022 Latin Grammys celebrated the best artists in Latin music on 17 November. Broadcast live from the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas, the sound team trusted Shure Axient Digital to ensure music and Latin voices were the brightest stars of the night.
The evening reunited the biggest Latin artists of 2022. Attendees and viewers enjoyed quality audio thanks to 32 channels of the Shure Axient Digital Wireless System and 48 channels of PSM 1000 in-ear monitoring system. Latin music fans cheered their idols in an exciting ceremony that elevated Rosalia and Jorge Drexler as the biggest winners. Both artists relied on Shure: Rosalia performed on a KSM9HS, while Jorge selected a tailored white KSM9 with an ADX2 handheld transmitter.
The 23rd Latin Grammys started with a group performance as a tribute to Mexican singer and songwriter Marco Antonio Solís, who was a

UK - 10 out of 10 Productions has announced its acquisition of lighting and sound systems manufacturer, Andolite.
Andolite will continue to operate as an independent company as part of 10 out of 10 Productions, offering its full range of manufactured products to the marketplace.
Founded over twenty years ago, Andolite provides installers in the entertainment industry with cost-effective and robust manufactured lighting products. Following on from its struggle to overcome the pressures of the COVID pandemic, 10 out of 10 productions will work alongside the Andolite team to transform the business by improving its current product range, increasing innovations for new developments, and taking its offering into new untapped markets.
"We are delighted to have Andolite join the 10 out of 10 Productions cohort,” says Paul Need, director, 10 out of 10 Productions.


Royal Engagement - Robbie Williams will headline the first large-scale live music event to be held at the Sandringham royal estate. The pop star will be joined by several special guests at the outdoor concert in Norfolk on 26 August. Giles Cooper, from Heritage Live, said: "It will be the most magical concert in the most amazing surroundings that'll live in our memories forever." While the royal estate has played host to a number of events, including the mile-long Luminate Sandringham outdoor trail this Christmas, the concert will be the first time it has held a live-music event of this scale, organisers said. Pre-sale tickets to see the former Take That singer are due to go on sale on Thursday, with general sale starting on Friday.
Atlantic Crossing - Irish rock band U2's music has been described as a "bridge between Ireland and America" by United States Presi

Sweden - Borås Stadsteater took the opportunity whilst undergoing a building renovation to simultaneously break down barriers to the most effective audio presence for its audiences. The venue reinvested in a new loudspeaker system spatialised by a Dante-equipped TiMax SoundHub spatial audio engine complete with a TiMax Tracker performer stagetracking system.
A flexible audio system was of paramount importance to the 500-capacity, municipality-run theatre. Though spoken dramatic productions are predominant, with classic productions and new writing having an equal footing, productions at the Stadsteater cater to the requirements of the public and range from modern circus to musicals, and ballet to pop concerts.
Borås Stadsteater’s head of sound, Tobias Walka specified all elements of the audio installation including the TiMax SoundHub and TiMax Tracker. He explained,

Singapore - Creative Technology APAC has recently added Tessera S8 LED processors to its existing Brompton Technology inventory. These have already been deployed on two high profile, internationally broadcast esports events hosted by Riot Games.
“Brompton Technology has always been thought of highly in the industry, and with in-camera productions growing rapidly in the last couple of years, it made complete sense to capitalise on the opportunity and invest in Tessera LED processors,” says Juay Minghee, operations director at CT Singapore. “Brompton’s presence in the APAC region and the company’s pro-active engagement with our team in Singapore has already been beneficial.
“Brompton’s industry-renowned 24/7 customer support also gave us confidence in our investment. We know there will always be someone from Brompton’s team available to answer our questio

Serbia - Chameleon Rental is well-known in Serbia thanks to the knowledge, dedication and rich experience its team has gained during over two decades of business. It is recognised as a company that continuously strives for technical innovation, one that pays particular attention to ensuring its inventory comprises a winning combination of high-quality manufacturing, reliability and functionality.
Before the 2022 summer season started, Chameleon decided to improve its audio production capabilities by adding a new digital audio console, choosing a DiGiCo Quantum 225 as its latest acquisition.
“We have used DiGICo consoles for many years and already have SD9s in our inventory,” says Chameleon’s Ivan Krsev. “They have served us very well, so adding the Quantum 225 was logical. We really like small format console of the console, the high-resolution touchscreen and i

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