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World - tvONE and Green Hippo have announced they will bring their new technologies directly to partners and end-users in their own countries, focusing on a series of local tradeshow events around the world.
After making the move to not exhibit at ISE 2022 in Barcelona, the company will focus its efforts on a number of face-to-face activities, including Prolight & Sound in Frankfurt with Green Hippo distributor Cast Germany; Technology Exposed by Midwich; NAB with partners FX Design Group, DigiLED and DVG; PLASA Focus Leeds with AC Entertainment UK; Infocomm 2022, Las Vegas; Medialog by Kern & Stelly Germany; S14 Day by Comm-tec GmbH (Exteris ProAV) Germany; as well as a series of the popular Super User Events for Green Hippo. For clients in the Middle East, Spitfire will create a roadshow in Dubai and Qatar.
“With the postponement of ISE 2022 and changing e

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China - Clear-Com will be attending Prolight + Sound Guangzhou (PLSG) this year, from 22-25 February. Clear-Com will show its latest innovations - Arcadia Central Station and FreeSpeak Edge Base Station - as well its market-proven solutions.
“We are especially excited to attend this show as live events have begun to come back online,” comments Jeffrey Wu, Clear-Com’s regional sales manager and chief representative for China. “Clear-Com products have been critical to the live market for over 50 years, but we are still developing new and innovative products that we know will be welcomed by the attendees of this show.”
Featured on the stand will be the new Arcadia Central Station, a scalable IP intercom platform that integrates wired and digital wireless partyline systems along with third-party Dante devices in a single rack unit. The system scales to meet var
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World - Over 1,200 people representing more than 60 countries around the world have already registered for ETC’s 2022 CUE conference. The 24-hour event is slotted for 17 February and starts in Asia at 11:00am HKT with a keynote address from ETC’s vice-president of marketing David Lincecum. This is followed by the European sessions, which will take place from 10:00am to 5:00pm GMT.
ETC staff and other industry experts follow with a series of sessions over the course of the day in multiple time zones and multiple languages including French, German and Russian. The conference wraps up in North America at 5:00pm CST.
The agenda will cover the topics impacting the live events industry. Session topics include product technology, building theat

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UK - Recently launched U.K. manufacturer Optimal Audio has announced the appointment of Erikson Pro as its exclusive distributor in Canada.
Erikson Pro, part of JAM Industries, distributes a range of brands to the audio and lighting sector, including Allen & Heath, Audient, Chauvet Professional and Martin Audio. Through an extensive network of exclusive representatives, the company maintains close relationships with resellers, consultants and professionals across the sector, priding itself on the high standards and responsiveness of its customer service and technical support.
Dom Harter, managing director of Optimal Audio, comments: "We're delighted to be partnering with Erikson in what is a large and important market. As part of the Focusrite Group, we’re familiar with Erikson’s excellent work with our sister brand Martin Audio, and consequently approach this

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Cover Up - Theatres across England have indicated they will continue to ask audiences to wear masks for the safety of their staff and other theatregoers, despite restrictions being lifted later this week.
Prime minister Boris Johnson announced last week that Plan B measures - including mandatory mask wearing in theatres - would be lifted this week. Following his announcement, numerous theatres have said that they plan to continue requesting face coverings inside their venues.
Sheffield Theatres said it had taken the decision to continue with mandatory face coverings beyond 27 January, with this decision reviewed every two weeks in light of the number of cases locally.
“Since the theatres reopened last summer we have been encouraging audiences to wear masks during their visit. We took the decision to introduce mandatory face coverings before Plan B in early Dece

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UK - Thomas Heatherwick’s Materials House was commissioned by the Science Museum in London as an exhibit to show “everything that anything can be made of” for the Challenge of Materials gallery. The idea was that, instead of prioritising any one material to make the house from, and then exhibiting small samples of all the other materials within it, the studio chose to make the house itself from all of the materials.
The result - six-metre-high pieces of each material bonded together into a single element of many strata was built in situ on the first floor of the museum in 1999 and remained a centrepiece of the gallery until December 2021, when Unusual Rigging was called upon to help the museum remove the exhibit from its long-time home, and lower it to the ground floor, ready for transportation to be held in storage.
Robin Elias, director at Unusual Rigging expla

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UK - Lighting and rigging equipment and services specialists, TSL, has a diverse portfolio of clients across the live events industry. With an impressive remit that encompasses music, theatre, corporate, sporting and e-sport events, the need for reliable, versatile lighting fixtures to handle this varied field of activity is paramount.
“Last year, when we looked to evaluate and increase our range of outdoor profiles, we were intent on investing in LED fixtures which were robust and flexible enough to cope with the many demands we put upon our equipment,” explains TSL director, Loz Wilcox. “We were looking for a fixture which could support our clients on their exterior lighting projects. We tried out options from several manufacturers and chose Perseo above all others for a number of reasons. It’s a great feature-packed fixture, with all the things you’d expect from

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USA - Powersoft has moved offices to a larger and more suitable space in Flanders, New Jersey, for the increasing requirements of the company. This expansion has been supported by the appointment of Sara Schiffler as the new business development manager for the Americas.
The new location in New Jersey has the benefits of dedicated private offices, demo/training space, a lab area and is only 45 minutes away from Newark airport. Powersoft’s previous headquarters, more geared towards early-stage companies, was on the fourth floor with shared amenities and without any direct access to loading bays.
“Our new headquarters significantly improves our ability to host our customers and dealers for training, demonstrations and seminars,” says Tom Knesel, general manager at Powersoft US. “The atmosphere is far more relaxed for our employees, and we have almost tripled the

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South Korea - Seoul-based Ingang Audio Co has been appointed as the South Korean distributor for Optocore and BroaMan with immediate effect.
Established in 2006 under president Joo Hong Chang and CEO Steve Kim, Ingang Audio has built a portfolio of global pro audio brands, including Meyer Sound, Calrec, Countryman, Samson and Lectrosonics.
Both Chang and technical director, Eric Han had known Optocore and BroaMan for many years and the latter has received Optocore training. The company had also developed a good relationship with Optocore distribution sales manager, Dawid Somló and the tech team during earlier project development.
“Ingang had been talking with us for long time,” explains Somló. “They are an excellent pro audio company with a good infrastructure. They are keen to develop their portfolio with our video transporting systems and also add them

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France - Organisers of Showlight have announced that plans are underway to reinstate Showlight 2023 which, after a two-year postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is now scheduled to take place between 20-23 May 2023. The venue for this much-loved lighting quadrennial will be the Théâtre Municipal in Fontainebleau, near Paris, France, the original destination for the postponed 2021 event.
“The Showlight committee is now planning for the next live Showlight in May 2023 and we hope this time nothing will de-rail it!” says Showlight chairman, John Allen. “We are delighted to have the continued support of our main sponsor, Robert Juliat, along with many of the sponsors who were already supporting Showlight 2021. Fontainebleau’s local administration has, once again, made the Théâtre Municipal available for us - right in the centre of the town - and, as a result, t

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UK - PLASA and #WeMakeEvents have published a detailed global survey report on the current position and future recovery of the live events industry.
The survey ran from 1 November to 21 December 2021 and was completed by 1,948 respondents in over 40 countries in five different languages. “The data provides strong and clear evidence of the challenges currently facing the sector, with the vast majority currently reporting delays, shortages and cost increases,” say the organisations.
The outlook is mixed, with the majority of respondents lacking confidence in industry recovery within the next six months. This is even more startling considering the survey was conducted before the omicron variant threatened the lucrative winter holiday season. However, there is cautious optimism from seven to 18 months, which mirrors the progress made when the live events industry re-o

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South Africa - Professional audio, AV and broadcast specialists Stage Audio Works has launched AV Distribution, a new company dedicated to "managing those markets chiefly served through a reseller/integrator channel". Anything that is project-based will remain the remit of Stage Audio Works.
The executive and management teams of the Stage Audio Works group remain unchanged and the company continues to invest in the market with the ongoing development and expansion of local manufacturing under its Stage Plus and Pixel Plus brands.
According to SAW CEO Will Deysel, the decision to form AV Distribution was a logical evolution of the process already started in March 2021 when the company restructured its sales operation into two distinct verticals - namely projects and distribution. The creation of a separate company sees the process through to its conclusion.
“We

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USA - The 2022 New World Rigging Symposium, taking place virtually on 5-7 April, will bring together professional riggers, engineers, manufacturers, venue managers, educators and students to further their rigging knowledge, hear about challenging projects, get up to speed on new technologies, discuss current industry challenges, and get their questions answered.
The session line-up features an array of subject matter experts sharing their knowledge on: Rope 201, Load Monitoring Systems: Know Your Limits, Rope Access in Entertainment: Training and Usage, Performer Flying Case Study: It Happened at Wembley, Hosting Road Shows at a University, What the Engineers Want You to Know, Touring Overseas: Getting Your Ducks in a Row, Rigging Challenges: Infrastructure Case Studies, Women Riggers of ETCP and Intro to Mental Health First Aid.
The three-day symposium will also inclu

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USA - In early April 2022, Main Light will be opening a new facility in Nashville this spring. This will expand Main Light’s operations to a third location, joining Main Light East in Wilmington and Main Light West in Las Vegas.
The new 70,000sq.ft. Main Light South shop will be located at 12630 Old Hickory Blvd, Antioch, TN. Locally, Main Light South will be led by rental account manager Cathie Berbena Lloyd (pictured, right) and operations manager, Jim Gregory (left).
“We found that choosing Nashville makes it much more efficient to support our clients in the area,” explains Main Light general manager, Randy Mullican. “There was a lack of a dry hire options in this market, so it just made sense to open here, where we already have a number of clients. Now with moving into the right space for our facility here, along with the knowledgeable and experienced peop

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UK - Outdoor Digital Productions (ODP), a collaborative enterprise between ADI, JA Productions and Outdoor Places Unusual Spaces (OPUS), has been chosen to deliver the official Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Festival Live Sites.
ODP aims to transform multiple city locations from large capacity venues, such as Smithfield, to civic and community green spaces, into accessible hubs for cultural placemaking and collective celebration during the 2022 Commonwealth Games. The Live Sites will include showpiece creative staging, participatory activations and live arts performances with a focus on locality and sustainability.
Emily Muirhead, Live Sites project manager at Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, commented, “We’re excited to have the Outdoor Digital Productions team on-board to facilitate our Live Sites during a momentous occasion for Birmingham and the surrou

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Coachella Returns - Billie Eilish, Harry Styles and Kanye West - known as Ye - will headline this year's Coachella festival. It's being held for the first time since 2019 after the 2020 festival was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The festival runs across two weekends in April in Indio, California, with the same line-up appearing on them both. Swedish House Mafia, Flume, Megan Thee Stallion, Disclosure, Doja Cat and Run the Jewels will also perform. Billie Eilish will become the festival's youngest ever headliner.
Celtic Connections - The organisers of Celtic Connections have launched a ‘hybrid’ online version of the musical festival after shows had to be cancelled due to Covid restrictions on crowds. Performances will now be shown online with some screened to smaller audiences at Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall. A small number of larger-scale shows will b

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The Netherlands - Since being set up in the early 1980s by brothers Ad and Gert-Jan Gomes, DSL Geluids- & Lichtverhuur has grown steadily into a full-service supplier of sound and lighting.
The wide range of productions serviced by the company - ranging from dance to pop and from business events to theatre productions - requires equipment that can be widely deployed, with Martin Audio systems occupying a prominent place within the DSL warehouse.
Recently, they added two further Martin Audio speaker systems to their inventory: a WPL high output line array and a Torus constant curvature array, supplied by Dutch distributor Ampco Flashlight Sales from Utrecht.
Explaining the reasons for these acquisitions, Gert-Jan Gomes stated, “After the earlier purchase of the WPC system - the successor to the old W8LC - it made sense to move up to the optimum WPL, since la

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USA - UK-based pro audio solutions manufacturer Optimal Audio has announced the appointment of BTX Technologies as its distributor in the US.
Optimal Audio, part of the Focusrite Group, manufactures a one-stop solution of control, amplification and loudspeakers for small to medium sized commercial installations, with a focus on supporting multi-zoned venues.
For more than 50 years, BTX has helped its partners overcome technical hurdles with a wide array of nationally and internationally sourced integration products and is well placed to introduce a new brand to the US market, says Optimal Audio managing director Dom Harter.
“BTX is a trusted and highly respected name in the AV industry, well known for its grassroots sales efforts, great technical support and strong customer service. The BTX team noticed very early on the value of what Optimal Audio brings to th

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Europe - After consultation with the ISE exhibitor and visitor community and in the light of the increasing impact of the Omicron variant in Spain, Integrated Systems Events has announced that ISE 2022, scheduled for 1-4 February, has been postponed and will now take place on 10-13 May 2022 at the Fira de Barcelona Gran Vía.
Mike Blackman, managing director of Integrated Systems Events, says: “We’ve been closely monitoring the conditions in Europe and have been working hard on your behalf to balance health and safety concerns with the need for commerce and in-person interaction. It’s been a challenging time for so many over the past two years, and whilst we cannot wait to meet up with everyone at ISE 2022, listening to our exhibitors, owners and stakeholders, we have agreed the best course of action is to postpone the show edition for three months.
“By moving

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Overwhelming Loss - Bring It On the Musical has cancelled its planned UK tour dates after suffering an "overwhelming loss of income" due to omicron disruption. The show was forced to cancel 13 performances during its six-week run at the Southbank Centre in London due to self-isolation requirements, losing hundreds of thousands of pounds, producers said. It continues at the Queen Elizabeth Hall until 22 January, however producer Selladoor Worldwide has now announced that the touring dates that followed will not go ahead. It had been due to visit locations across the UK until 30 July.
A statement from Selladoor said: "Cancelling 13 performances has resulted in an overwhelming loss of income for the production during a peak period that would otherwise have provided a vital financial backbone of the tour. This lost income, amounting to hundreds of thousands of pounds, ha

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UK - Martin Audio has confirmed its first series of open days for the new year. Following the success of the open days in September 2021 the High Wycombe company will hold two product demos at its HQ on 8 and 9 March.
Operating under COVID safety conditions, the event kicks off on 8 March, with two-hour presentations at 9.30am and 2.00pm, and will repeat this programme on the following day.
Visitors can expect to hear demonstrations of the LE and XE stage monitors, point source loudspeakers from BlacklineX and BlacklineX Powered ranges, the Torus constant curvature array and a selection of optimised line arrays from the Wavefront Precision series.
In addition, attendees will be able to become better acquainted with Focusrite Pro and Optimal Audio, sister brands within the wider Focusrite Group.

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Germany - Sixty82 has confirmed Berlin-based edelmat. as its newest reseller for Germany.
Edelmat. services include consultation, conception, implementation, as well as service, for rental and installation projects in the field of event technology. It is here that the human being is in the foreground, and edelmat.’s well-trained specialists maintain consistent contact with each and every client to develop budget-oriented and individual solutions.
Sixty82 and edelmat. have very similar values and goals, and the cooperation between the two companies has proved promising. “At edelmat. we connect people through conception and technology,” says edelmat.’s Ayke Bröcker. “The innovative solutions of the Sixty82 brand fits perfectly into our portfolio and our joint work is successful and fun. It is partly for these reasons we chose to become a reseller for Sixty82.

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UK - Cardiff-based Stage Sound Services is today one of the leading suppliers for the theatre and events industries in the UK and internationally. The company is also the single largest stockist of EM Acoustics equipment with well over 1000 pieces in their rental inventory.
SSS has recently bolstered that inventory still further with the addition of six R10s and 10 R8s from EM Acoustics’ flagship Reference Series range. The purchase also represents the first Reference Series delivery to a rental company.
R10 was recently honoured with a PLASA Innovation Award where the judges commended its controllable, adjustable low-mid dispersion, adding that the inclusion of the different high-medium frequency flares increases the flexibility for a touring show and is a feature that has not been seen before in a speaker of this type.
“We’re very pleased to take delivery

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UK - The ALPD has named 11 new fellows who will join its membership for life. A further two honorary members were also welcomed into the ALPD fold.
The ALPD fellowships are bestowed in recognition of the immense contribution each individual has made to the association and to the lighting community as well as the industry as a whole. The presentations will be made during the association’s Lighting Dinner, to be held at the Park Plaza Hotel, London, in February.
Johanna Town, ALPD chair, comments: “It is an extraordinary year for the ALPD, which has followed on from a truly extraordinary period for all of us in the lighting profession, the theatre community and far beyond. It is for this reason that we wish to celebrate and thank our new fellows and highlight the lifetime of work they have given and the opportunities they have created for others.”
The new 2
  1. Xytech acquired by private equity firm
  2. PLASA schedules Cultural Recovery Fund webinar
  3. The Back Lounge spearheads workshop series
  4. TSL Lighting invests in Elation Paladin
  5. Ankara animation studio adds Audient
  6. WILA announces expansion into US market
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