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USA - In response to ongoing demand, the Behind the Scenes Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Initiative has posted new online Mental Health First Aid training classes in August for entertainment industry workers in the U.S. at btshelp.org/mhfa.
As the entertainment industry returns to work, the stress of coming out of isolation to high pressure situations, feeling out of shape physically and mentally, and constantly changing Covid protocols are taking their toll. Anxiety and uncertainty are impacting many, as one attendee said, “With the added stress the pandemic had brought us, I foresee even greater need of these skills.”
Mental Health First Aid takes the fear and hesitation out of starting conversations about mental health and substance use problems by teaching you how to recognize the signs and symptoms that suggest a potential mental health challenge, how t

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UK - Audiologic, in partnership with GVAV, has delivered a hybrid teaching space at the University of Birmingham, providing a seamless learning experience for students, whether they are in person or remote learning off campus.
The University of Birmingham has recently developed a new purpose-built Teaching and Learning Building. Developed as an education hub, the facility provides spaces for teaching that adhere to the University’s modern learning experience standards.
The Teaching and Learning Building includes a 500-seat lecture theatre, a 250-seat interactive lecture theatre, ten seminar rooms, as well as individual study sections, collaborative group workspaces, and areas that accommodate creative break-out sessions.
The entire teaching facility has been fitted out with hybrid teaching in mind. Now, more than ever, it is essential that lecture theatres ar
ISE 2026 - Banner - Oct 2025

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UK - L-Acoustics rental network partner, West Midlands-based Tour-Tech / Stage Audio Services has invested in a K3 system, the first to land in the UK.
K3, launched in October 2020, is the latest in the touring reference K Series. Designed to deliver big sound for mid-size events by providing full-range bandwidth without the need for a flown companion subwoofer, its design reduces amplification needs. According to Tour-Tech / SAS’s Kevin Mobberley, these benefits meant that K3 would be a profoundly useable tool and ultimately solidified their commitment to invest in the new loudspeaker.
Although, like most of the industry, the company’s business has been seriously curtailed over the past 16 months, the management team foresaw a limited window of time to financially secure a new system. “We want to be ready when the big restart comes,” Mobberley notes. “K3 fit

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Austria - Austrian Audio reports ‘making big strides in the last year’, thanks partly to the ‘excellent cooperation’ with their distributors. The company which started in 1917 following the closure of AKG’s Vienna offices, has seen growth not only in the US, where the distributor Group One has opened a large number of stores for Austrian Audio, but also internationally.
In the past six months, the company has added new distributors in Chile, Mexico, India, Singapore and Thailand. Additionally, Austrian Audio products will start shipping to Iceland, Malaysia, Brazil, Malta, South Africa and Russia this summer.
“We are very excited to work with each of our amazing partners worldwide. Of course, we are supporting their efforts by providing education and sales materials for our products. But ultimately, they know their markets best,” says Martin Seidl, CEO o

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UK - The ABTT has announced the Virtual Ideas Platform. Set up in collaboration with Guildhall School of Music & Drama, the platform will serve as an informal introduction service between independent creative innovators and commercial developers behind the sectors’ leading brands, products and services.
The platform is open “to anyone and everyone with an idea” and aims to recognise and help realise new ways of making theatre work.
The ABTT says: “We know when backstage people are faced with a technical challenge, they get inventive and creative, cook up ideas and find solutions. The Platform is here to recognise, salute and honour those innovators in our midst.
“By its very nature, theatre is a dynamic working environment in which to invent and develop new and better ways of doing things - in special effects, costume and wardrobe, wigs, make-up and

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Survival Course - The Womad music festival has been cancelled "to guarantee its survival", co-founder Peter Gabriel has announced. Earlier this month, the former Genesis singer warned that the three-day event might not go ahead without government-backed insurance or test event status. Confirming the cancellation, he said waiting for either would "put Womad's long-term future at risk".
In a statement, Gabriel said the decision to cancel his world music festival, which was launched almost 40 years ago and attracts about 40,000 people each year, was made "with great regret". "We feel that our audience, artists, staff, and contractors, who have been amazingly supportive throughout all this, will understand the need for us to act to guarantee our survival," he wrote.
Gabriel said the decision to grant test event status to some festivals due to be held on the same 22-25 July

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UK - Martin Audio is gearing up for two ‘action packed days’ in early September, which will see them combine the latest in open day programme - and their first in two years - with a party to celebrate their 50th anniversary.
Held on 7 and 8 September, the open days have been designed to coincide with the return of the PLASA Show in London, when the international light and sound community descends on the capital.
The events will rigidly follow COVID rules for both staff and visitors, with appropriate protocols put in place. Sessions will be held at 09:30, 12.30 and 15:30 on September 7th, and at 10.00 and 13:00 on September 8th. Each session will run for two hours.
For the active demonstrations, guests will have the opportunity to sample the Adorn series, including the latest ceiling additions, as well as BlacklineX, CDD, Torus and SXCF118 subwoofer. The Wavef

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USA - Main Light, LLC. has announced that it will be expanding its operations with a location in Las Vegas, NV as of August 23, 2021. The new 40,000sq.ft shop, at 6435 South Valley View in Las Vegas will allow the dry hire service to better support the western US
Pairing with Main Light’s Delaware shop, the Las Vegas operation will duplicate the depth of new and well-maintained equipment available.
“Having a west coast shop is something that our clients have been asking about for some time,” states Randy Mullican, general manager of Main Light, LLC. “As the entertainment and event industries are re-opening, many of clients are asking us to step-in and support them across the country. Though we always would provide gear wherever needed, the Las Vegas location will allow us to respond to those needs more efficiently, and very-importantly, cost effectively.”

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Germany/UK - Last month, SUSE made its initial public offering debut on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. In response to the limitations of physical events brought on by the pandemic and in lieu of being at the Deutsche Börse in person, SUSE reinvented the entire listing day experience with a digital-first approach.
SUSE collaborated with Deloitte Digital, using technical solutions specialist White Light (WL’s) SmartStage in London, to create an entirely virtual experience that could reach its global audience.
Bespoke virtual worlds, and overall storyline, created by Deloitte Digital / ACNE, together with their production partner NSYNK, using Unreal Engine, were seamlessly integrated into the SmartStage environment and remotely edited via VPN from Frankfurt.
The environment was further enhanced with extended reality (XR) features, such as a virtual drone to visual

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New Zealand - The Stardome Observatory and Planetarium recently upgraded its cinema and live performance venue with a complete Harman Professional networked surround sound system comprised of JBL Professional, Crown, BSS and Soundcraft solutions.
The Stardome’s observatory opened to the public in 1967, while the planetarium - the largest in New Zealand - launched in 1997. The venue features a panoramic theatre with a full-dome concave screen, laser projectors and IMAX angled seating for an immersive 360-degree viewing experience. Doubling as both a cinema and live performance venue, the Stardome needed a versatile sound system to support a wide range of events. Additionally, since a range of staff members and volunteers operate the facility, ease of use was a top priority.
Stardome organisers hired AV Integration company Avid Automation and Harman distributor JPRO t

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The Netherlands - This year’s Eurovision Song Contest has been recognised as a pivotal moment in the return of large-scale entertainment events in a post-COVID world. Performed in front of a live audience of 3,500 plus delegates in the Greenroom on the arena floor, ESC captivated both the live audience and the 183m watching on television from 234 countries worldwide.
The entire event was under the supervision of Eurovision’s head of production, Erwin Rintjema.
At the heart of lighting designer, Henk-Jan van Beek’s dynamic design were the tools to guarantee that the Multi-camera directors received all the key lighting required to bring the performers to the small screen exactly as they would wish.
The Netherlands-based Follow-Me 3D SIX remote tracking system (as part of the lighting specification delivered by the official technical supplier, Ampco Flashli

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USA - For all six seasons of Fox’s award-winning television series Empire, lighting programmer Jared Moore used a variety of Hog control products for the show’s diverse performance settings and other scenes. The American musical drama was one of the most-watched series during its long run through 2020. After a quick run on the US shoot for Warner Brothers The Batman, Moore next turned his focus to work on Power Book IV: Force, Starz's spin-off based on original Power character Tommy Egan.
Jared began his career in 2002 as a freelance LD in Chicago, coming of age through the theater scene and designing for a modern dance company on ETC desks. In 2013 he transitioned into television and film work, where he learned of the Hog platform. He says, “I was told by another programmer that all the film guys used Hog. I worked on the ABC show Mind Games where

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UK The landmark Nottingham Castle reopens this month following a £30m refurbishment which started in 2018. Part of the new look is an Anolis exterior LED lighting scheme illuminating all four sides of the building, comprising 17 x Anolis Divine 160 fixtures which was designed by Ian Forrow of IJF Lighting and commissioned by On Event Production from Castle Donnington.
Electrical installation and fixtures were supplied by Amptron Electrical Services who were the appointed electrical contractor for the whole project which included the external lighting.
The original fortified castle dates to Medieval times but that structure was largely demolished by the mid-17th century, with a mansion built on the site in the 1670s by the first and second Dukes of Newcastle. This was burnt down by rioters in 1831 and rebuilt in the 1870s to house an art gallery and museum which remain

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UK - Unusual Rigging has completed a major refurbishment of the grid at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London’s West End ahead of the much-anticipated reopening of Phantom of the Opera next month.
When the Covid-19 pandemic forced the production to close its doors in March 2020, it opened a bitter-sweet opportunity to get some essential work done on the magnificent old theatre’s roof space, ensuring it could continue to stage the elaborate aspects of Phantom that audiences across the world know and love, including the famous hanging chandelier.
Jeremy Featherstone, Unusual Rigging explained: “Her Majesty’s Theatre is a wonderful building, but as with all old theatres, they need maintenance and continuous improvements to their structure in order to preserve them and allow them to continue hosting productions.
“Phantom is a heavy show and the gr

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USA - ACT Lighting has announced the launch of ACT Entertainment, a new entity formed by bringing together the brands of the ACT Lighting and RHC Holdings family of companies.
The new ACT is billed as a streamlined organisation that “takes a holistic approach to the industries it serves, curating critical entertainment technologies and bringing leading products and services to its clients across multiple distinct markets”.
“Offering exceptional products and services, ACT Entertainment gives the most exciting and valuable entertainment technologies in the world a single home in North America,” says Ben Saltzman, CEO of ACT Entertainment. “We are exclusively focused on empowering our customers with the tools and support they need to enhance their, and their clients’, creative visions. ACT Entertainment enhances live experiences by discovering, developing, an

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UK - The widely respected PLASA Awards for Innovation return to the PLASA Show for 2021, in association with LSi magazine. All PLASA Show 2021 exhibitors are invited to enter their new products by Friday 6 August to be in with a chance of winning one of the coveted awards.
The awards celebrate products from across live entertainment technology which demonstrate a new style of thinking, improve technical practice or safety, introduce new materials or techniques, or offer a new commercial advantage.
Each entered product will be judged by an independent panel of industry experts who have the authority to present up to eight awards of equal standing, plus a potential Gold Award for an outstanding new product.
Furthermore, an Award for Sustainability is reserved for a product that can demonstrate a significant reduction of power, utilises renewable energy, or has a po

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UK - Fairport Convention have announced that their annual music festival, Fairport’s Cropredy Convention, has been postponed for the second time.
The three-day event had been scheduled to take place on 12-14 August this year. It will now be staged over the weekend of 11, 12, 13 August 2022 on its usual farmland site in Oxfordshire.
The organisers hope the current line-up of acts will be carried forward. Artists booked to appear this year have provisionally agreed to transfer their bookings to 2022. Highlights are expected to include Trevor Horn Band, Clannad, Steve Hackett’s Genesis Revisited, Richard Thompson, and host band Fairport Convention.
Festival director Gareth Williams said: “We’re left with no other choice than to postpone our festival again. We have reached the point where we’d need to spend big money but without any certainty we could go ah

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UK - The past year has been difficult for the professional audio industry. Continuing education during this time has been in high demand, and Shure is responding to the need by announcing a new, free training programme specifically for audio professionals.
“We want to equip everyone with various levels of technical knowledge including people who are new to the audio industry as well as experienced professionals and help set them up for success as the industry begins to reopen,” said Eduardo Valdes, senior director, global marketing, for Pro and Consumer Audio at Shure.
The Pro Curriculum is a new eLearning training from the Shure Audio Institute. The programme is divided into three tiers: Level 1: Fundamentals To become a successful audio professional, a strong understanding of industry fundamentals is essential. This program covers core essentials such as maximizi

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USA - The Meyer Sound Spacemap Go US Roadshow will roll across the country through the summer and fall with stops in 10 cities, including sessions in conjunction with the Church Facilities Conference & Expo (CFX) in Dallas, 21-22 September and InfoComm 2021 in Orlando, 26-29 October.
The Roadshow demo sessions are principally focused on Spacemap Go, Meyer Sound’s spatial sound design and live mixing tool, although the touring system also showcases other new technologies as incorporated in the Ultra‑X20 compact loudspeaker and VLFC very low-frequency control element.
“We are taking Spacemap Go on the road so customers and users can experience it first-hand,” says Daniel Rivera, sales manager, West for Meyer Sound and principal organiser of the tour. “You cannot fully appreciate the power of Spacemap Go until you hear it in action, and you can’t grasp it

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Europe - German-based audio network specialist DirectOut and the Italian IT system provider Vivivaldy will use SRT for ViViD, a customized service that permits audio professionals to easily setup remote productions using standard internet connections.
The two companies have joined the SRT Alliance following the strategy of providing easy and reliable remote production solutions.
Secure Reliable Transport (SRT) is a free, open-source AV transport protocol and technology stack originally developed and pioneered by Haivision that enables the delivery of high-quality and secure, low-latency audio/video across the public internet.
Luca Di Chio, CEO of Vivivaldy, comments: “As Vivivaldy we’re proud to join the SRT Alliance to implement the open-source AV transport protocol into our VPN-routers. We think it’s a way to bring additional value to our clients. As the

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UK - Music Support, the charity created by and for music industry professionals to provide help for UK workers affected by mental ill-health and/or addiction, has been commissioned by Tour Production Group (TPG) to deliver pioneering Addiction and Recovery Aware training.
Co-ordinated by the TPG, donations totalling nearly £20,000 have been provided by contributions from Backup Tech, Massive Attack, Hipgnosis Songs, We Need Crew, and Rock-it Cargo. A bursary scheme has also been specially created to enable 100 touring freelancers working in the technical and production side of the industry to take the course free of charge.
Live music has suffered immensely since March 2020, and support groups and vital online networks have become a part of daily life for out of work crews. Formed in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, TPG has hosted online weekly discussions a

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UK - Peerless-AV has announced that it will be hosting an AV exhibition and networking event on 16 September at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London.
AV and digital signage brands signed up to take space at the exhibition, include Absen, Philips, Samsung, NEC, Kramer, Sony UK, Iiyama, Datapath, Hypervsn, Signagelive, Tripleplay and Matrox. The AV User Group, AV Magazine and AVIXA Women’s Council UK will also be involved.
“After a long time planning and deliberating, closely following the latest government announcements, we’re very pleased that we can finally push ahead with our exhibition and networking event,” comments Keith Dutch, managing director - EMEA, Peerless-AV. “For many AV professionals, ISE 2020 will have been the last time they had face-to-face interaction of this scale. I think I can speak for the majority in that, as restrictions ease, we’re a

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Europe - ALC NetworX, developers of the high-performance Ravenna AoIP networking technology platform, has announced that the new Ravenna website is now live. Sporting a new, more modern look and feel the new site offers ‘even easier access to information and resources concerning all things that relate to Ravenna, including standards information, use cases, webinars and other resources.
The RAVENNA website is already a comprehensive resource in the world for AES67, and the new site aims to provide the same level of information for SMPTE ST 2110. While still it its infancy, the new SMPTE ST 2110 section already offers information and illustrative diagrams on what it is and why it’s useful, along with use cases, application examples and much more. Over time this information will become incr

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Germany - Van Damme cables has announced that it has agreed a new MI-only distribution partnership with German audio industry specialist, Audiosteps.
The deal is designed to expand Van Damme’s reach in the German market through Audiosteps’ local expertise. The partnership will offer German customers support and availability of the latest products, including Van Damme Silver Series guitar cables, Starquad and Classic mic cables as well as the Blue and Black Series speaker cables.
Audiosteps.de was founded in 2018 as a website offering free tutorials to anyone wanting to learn more about the music industry. Professionals in the sector would live stream sessions on various topics including recording, mixing, mastering music production and distribution. It was initially very much a ‘hobby project’ but it quickly became a well-known platform used by German producer
  1. TiMax and EM Acoustics immerse Expo visitors at Dubai Airport
  2. The Week in Light & Sound
  3. Martin Audio opens online merchandise store
  4. Song sales to support event staffers mental health
  5. Further summer festivals face cancellation
  6. PLASA Show 2021 registration now open
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