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UK - Acting & Theatre Production students at London’s prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) rigged a dynamic scene change using an Electro Kabuki drop in a recent performance of Oscar’s Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.
The play calls for a scene change between Act 1, based in the Piccadilly rooms of character Algernon Moncrief and Act 2, set in the garden of the Manor House in Woolton belonging to character Jack Worthing (aka. Earnest). In this lively and engaging production, the creative team came up with a novel idea to mark the transition.
With Electro Kabuki dropper modules rigged to the grid high above the production in a cargo net configuration, several hundred flower heads were dropped to the stage, bang on cue with accompanying sound effects, as the actor playing Miss Prism took her seat at the garden table. Marked by appreci

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UK - Music Support has launched weekly online support group meetings to allow the music industry’s 12 Step recovery community to continue to connect during the Covid-19 lockdown. Meetings will take place every Monday 18:00-19:00 GMT from 27 April to 28 September 2020.
Available to any music industry peers throughout the summer, Music Support will provide a confidential and non-judgemental space for people to share and encourage one another on the journey of recovery.
Music Support Services Officer, Joanne Croxford, states: “It might be that someone is in need of a secure virtual space to share their experiences, while others may want to take part in these meetings simply by listening in and feeling accepted and connected during isolation. Music Support will offer strength and hope as we all na
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UK - When Projects Department Ltd won the contract to create two live studios and two breaking news spots for the Financial Times TV studio in London, Doughty Engineering was quickly brought on board to supply a range of broadcast kit.
Peter Daffarn, managing director, Projects Department Ltd explains: "The client briefed us to create the studios and news spots for presenting live news bulletins at short notice and for occasional use and, with Doughty being our go-to company for hoists and grids, we knew they'd be fundamental to the project from the start."
Building a bulletin studio meant that Projects Department Ltd had a smaller than usual space to work with, therefore the design and build needed to be imaginative. The studios were required to be integrated into a working office space and, with a number of high-profile guests visiting, the client wanted it to be aes

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USA - On Tuesday evening, Verge Aero, the leader in high performance drone light shows, delivered a unique aerial tribute to medical staff and essential workers on the frontline of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The display of gratitude took place opposite the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and The Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania as part of the global #LightItBlue and local #PhillyShinesBlue campaigns, not far from Verge Aero’s Pennovation Works offices at the University of Pennsylvania.
The aerial light show was launched from Philadelphia’s Franklin Field football stadium, adjacent to the hospital complex. 140 extremely bright drones configured themselves into giant images up to 400ft above the ground, making themselves visible throughout the University of Pennsylvania campus and medical centre as well as far away across the Schuylkill River in downtow

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USA - Breaking down barriers between athletes and fans, Ross Stripling and Cooper Surles launched The Big Swing podcast in January 2019 to discuss everything from sports to pop culture to finance, with a focus on all things baseball. When the co-hosts were looking to deploy a high-quality microphone solution to capture crystal-clear audio for their podcast, they found what they were searching for with MXL Microphones’ BCD-1 Live Broadcast Dynamic Microphone.
“In our first few months of podcasting, audio was the biggest challenge for us,” says Stripling. “Once we were able to deploy the MXL mics and put them in front of each speaker, our audio went up twofold – the sound quality of MXL’s BCD-1 is incomparable to the previous solution we were using.”
In addition to quality audio pickup, Surles finds the noise rejection capabilities of MXL’s BCD-1 t

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Belgium - Looking for an alternative venue to the norm, a young couple in West Flanders held their wedding reception at Transfo Zweegem, a former power plant that was built in 1911.
With its matrix of crisscrossing steel girders and beams, boilers, tanks and generator housings, the venue’s long narrow main hall resonates with echoes of a distant industrial past. Accenting the evocative power of this setting, while complementing it with a stylish 21st century touch, was a vividly coloured lighting arrangement by Présence that featured over 40 Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Solico Events & Expo Technics.
The warm amber, and purple-blue light form these fixtures endowed the room with an inviting sense of intimacy without detracting from the stark, intense effect of its industrial nature. “We definitely liked the industrial atmosphere,” said Isabel D

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USA - Bright Star Systems recently equipped Marcus Theatres’ new Movie Tavern location in Milwaukee, the first full cinema complex in the U.S. to feature JBL Sculpted Surround technology, with JBL Professional cinema loudspeakers, JBL Professional DSi 2.0 amplifiers and Crown DCi amplifiers.
Movie Tavern by Marcus is a premium theatre concept offering restaurant-style dining and in-seat service for moviegoers. At the new location in the Brookfield Square shopping centre, guests can enjoy dinner and a movie in the premium UltraScreen DLX theatre with Dolby Atmos immersive audio or one of seven additional theatres with 7.1 surround sound.
Bright Star Systems equipped the complex with JBL Professional cinema loudspeakers, DSi 2.0 amplifiers and Crown DCi amplifiers, following the JBL Sculpted Surround specification in the 7.1-equipped theatres. Sculpted Surround relies

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USA - Following the success of ADJ’s first run of Stay Connected educational live video broadcasts, the company has announced that more have been planned. Covering a wide variety of lighting-related topics, and including panel sessions with industry leaders, the next wave of broadcasts will take place twice each week throughout May and into June.
Each new instalment of Stay Connected will have a particular focus and provide an opportunity for lighting and event professionals to upskill from the safety and comfort of their own homes or offices. Some will take a deep dive into a specific piece of software or technology, while others will cover a more general topic. All the sessions are designed “to teach, equip and inspire”.
Broadcast via Facebook Live, the videos will also feature interactive elements allowing viewers to ask questions directly to the

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USA/Europe - A group of industry manufacturers, including Audio Ltd., Ambient, dB Audio, DPA Microphones, Lectrosonics, K-Tek, Sonosax, Sound Devices, Bubblebee Industries, Schoeps, Ursa Straps, and Viviana Straps are offering a new-product based virtual event.
Virtual Sound Summit 2020 is a two-day virtual event featuring a number of new product and technology announcements that would have taken place at the 2020 NAB Show.
Say the organisers, “Presentations will be of interest to location sound and production professionals, chief engineers, news technicians, ENG crews, camera operators, network executives and other audio professionals in the field. This marks the first virtual Sound Summit, a series of educational presentations aimed at joining audio professionals together to collaborate and discuss audio production tools and techniques.”
The summit is sched

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Europe - During these challenging times, Christie continues to support its partners and customers in many ways, including the provision of online courses through Christie University, many of which are open to anyone with an interest in the technology, and free.
“Need to sharpen your understanding of processing with products such as Spyder, or hone your skills in content management or switching and distribution with products like Pandoras Box and Terra SDVoE technology? Sign up for one of our webinars for Pandoras Box or Christie Terra and Christie Spyder,” says Christie.

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USA - Australian alternative dance trio Rüfüs Du Sol,have been steadily building their reputation over the past decade. Masterminding the lighting on their tours since 2014 - respectively in support of the albums Atlas, Bloom, Solace, and now Live From Joshua Tree - has been Matthew Smith from Melbourne-based Colourblind.
As part of the Solace album tour, the band had appeared at CRSSD Festival in San Diego’s Waterfront Park at the beginning of March. “We redesigned the show to give it new life for the second half of the album cycle, deciding to replace the 24 GLP impression X4 Bar 20’s with more [GLP] JDC1’s,” explained Colourblind director, Matthew Smith, who was responsible for carrying out the redesign.
In fact the production is now using 38 of the JDC1’s in total, run in SPix mode 3 (68-channels) - seven upstage beh

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USA - Members of the final The Allman Brothers Band line-up, dubbed ‘The Brothers’, came together at Madison Square Garden in New York City to celebrate 50 years of The Allman Brothers Band. The Brothers included founding member Jaimoe and longtime members Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, Oteil Burbridge, Marc Quinones, and Chuck Leavell along with guests Duane Trucks and Reese Wynans.
The powerhouse band transported Madison Square Garden into the past with songs going back to the band’s original 1969 album.
The one-night show was powered by Meyer Sound solutions anchored by Leo and Lyon linear line array loudspeakers, provided by rental partners UltraSound and PRG North America. The system configuration consisted of, per side (L/R), a main PA with 16 Leo loudspeakers, six flown 1100-LFC low-frequency control elements, main 180-degree arrays and 270-degree arrays of

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UK - Britannia Row Productions has joined ranks of audio providers investing in Outline’s Newton processors.
The purchase followed an evaluation period and product demonstrations made by CUK’s James Lawford and Outline’s product specialist, Fernando Rey Méndez,
BRP’s technical head Keith Cunningham comments: “Following several demos of the Newton, we were very impressed with the GUI, fast workflow and ease of use. The Newton is the all-in-one solution to many technical problems.
“The form factor is the real selling point, it's a constant battle for all manufacturers to try and shrink the footprint while retaining functionality - Outline has managed to find a perfect match between both. Fernando at Outline and James at CUK have been very receptive to our feedback and feature requests, which really inspires confidence in both companies.”
BRP’

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UK - The Society of London Theatre (SOLT) and UK Theatre (UKT) have launched a digital resource to support the theatre sector during the COVID-19 crisis.
Theatre Means Business, available via theatremeansbusiness.info, provides an ongoing programme of webinars hosted by experts in their field. The webinars aim to cater for a wide pool of viewers, from furloughed workers to those in charge of the future of their organisation. Topics covered include business interruption planning, audience development following extreme events, and fostering diversity and inclusion.
Most webinars will be available free of charge (with optional donations) to non-members, although select sessions may require membership at SOLT and UKT.
Upcoming sessions include Reboot: Your Baseline for

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Europe - Five leading professional audio manufacturers have developed the first multi-manufacturer voice alarm solution fully compliant with EN 54-16.
The new initiative, created by Harman, Peavey, Luminex, d&b audiotechnik and Powersoft, introduces EN 54-16 product compliance to a larger pool of manufacturers and removes the need for specifiers to purchase such systems from specialist manufacturers. Instead, specifiers can now build compliant systems using products from different manufacturers.
Certification has already been granted to over 30 products, including audio signal processing and control using Peavey MediaMatrix, audio signal processing from BSS Audio, and a wide selection of Crown and Powersoft amplifiers. Luminex network switches are also certified to allow systems to be connected using copper or fibre. In the coming weeks, d&b amplifiers will al

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UK - A group of associations have launched the #EventsForTheFuture initiative in a bid to amplify the calls for better government support for the hard-hit events sector during the COVID-19 crisis.
#EventsForTheFuture is a collaboration between the Association for British Theatre Technicians (ABTT), the Professional Lighting and Sound Association (PLASA), Production Services Association (PSA), the Society Of London Theatres (SOLT), and UK Theatre. The bodies, which together represent over 3,000 businesses and individuals, have issued a joint call to events and entertainment industry professionals asking them to write to their MPs to highlight the government support needed in order to safeguard the future of the sector.
“The overall aim is to ensure events and entertainment are protected in the long term," says a statement. "Providing consistent messaging to government

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Eurovision Again - In the absence of this year's Eurovision Song Contest, cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, fans are reliving old competitions every Saturday night. Eurovision Again - watched in sync at 8pm British time on YouTube - connects fans across Europe online and has been the top UK trend on Twitter every time it's been on.
"It brings a sense of togetherness and let's me be with all of my friends every Saturday," 20-year-old Nana-Ama Ewusi-Emmim told BBC Radio. "It's something to look forward to."
Twitter says there have been 100,000 tweets about the fan-organised watch-a-long, which trends higher than shows like Britain's Got Talent - broadcast at the same time on TV. The most recent contest chosen was 1997, which was the last time the UK won with Katrina and The Waves - who also joined in with Eurovision Again online. Around

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Germany - Ravenna recently launched a series of webinars as a way of staying in touch with customers and users. Centred around the topic of audio-over-IP, the first session, Ravenna and its relationship to AES67 and ST2110, was a general overview held on 14 April. Given the enthusiastic response - the first webinar was vastly oversubscribed - Ravenna has rapidly increased its hosting capacity and fine-tuned the programme.
All webinars will take place on Tuesday at 15:00 CEST (14:00 BST and 09:00 EDT). Duration is scheduled for around 60 minutes with time for questions/discussion afterwards.
The next session, which takes place on Tuesday 28 April at 15:00, is an introduction to AES67 & ST 2110 and continues the theme of the first session with a closer look at both standards and how they relate to each other. The following webinar on Tuesday 12 May offers a de

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UK - Load cell company Broadweigh has passed its final audit to be granted full membership of the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association.
LEEA is a representative body for all those involved in the lifting industry worldwide. It has taken three years to achieve full LEEA membership which is only available to companies that are ‘engaged for profit in the verification of lifting equipment’, and which, in the opinion of the LEEA directors, is competent and can give adequate service.
Tom Lilly, application engineer at Broadweigh comments: “Three years ago, Broadweigh joined LEEA as an associate member because we strive to be the best – not only in the quality of product we offer but also in the role that we take within the entertainment industry. We then decided last year that we should be including a thorough examination in our recalibration and refurbishment se

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Europe - As much of the world follows safe-at-home and social distancing guidelines and mandates, the Audio Engineering Society is bringing the AES Europe Convention directly to attendees.
Originally scheduled to take place in Vienna, Austria, the AES Virtual Vienna Convention in now set for 2-5 June 2020, with an online format.
The event is billed as “a front-row-seat to the AES event experience, utilising live streaming, on-demand audio/video/multimedia presentations, interactive Q&A and forum dialogues to realise the personal connection and emotional feedback that is at the heart of AES live events”.
The AES Virtual Vienna Convention will explore “a gamut of audio engineering science, application and technology with presentations from some of the leading minds in the industry”.
Further details on the AES Virtual Vienna Convention, which will

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UK - Music Venue Trust (MVT) has launched a new campaign - #saveourvenues - in response to the continued economic threat to over 500 music venues throughout the UK. Following on from the launch of their Grassroots Music Venues (GMV) Crisis Fund last month, #saveourvenues is aimed at artists, music fans and the wider music industry and aims to raise both money and awareness.
To date, the GMV Crisis Fund has raised over £182,000 thanks to significant donations from Amazon Music, SJM, a number of high-profile artists and music fans throughout the UK. From this week, The GMV Crisis Fund has been re-named the #saveourvenues fund and will form part of a wider initiative that will see artists raising money for individual venues with whom they have a personal connection.
Artists are being encouraged to choose a venue that is currently in crisis from an interactive map and dro

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UK - In a bid to iron out inconsistencies in the financial help offered to the UK’s smallest businesses, chancellor Rishi Sunk has introduced 100% taxpayer-backed loans for small firms.
The Bounce Back Loans scheme, launching on 4 May, is a response to the slow take-up of emergency bank lending during the COVID-19 crisis, which has meant businesses could fold before getting loans.
The scheme will require filling in a two-page self-certification form online and will unlock loans of up to £50,000 “within days of applying”.
The government will guarantee 100% of the loan and there won’t be any fees or interest to pay for the first 12 months.
To be eligible, a business:
- must be based in the UK
- must have been negatively affected by the coronavirus crisis
- was not an ‘undertaking in difficulty’ on 31 December 2019

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USA - Elation Professional continues its Elation Hour online presentation series Wednesday, 29 April, where three of America’s top lighting designers for television – Victor Fable, Joshua Hutchings and Ed Motts – join hosts John Dunn and Matthias Hinrichs for a Tools & Techniques discussion about the ins and outs of television and broadcast lighting. The free webinar will take place at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Standard Time in the U.S.
The Elation Hour is a weekly virtual presentation that delves into the more personal side of product development while also addressing the technology and process behind the Elation’s most popular product series.
The series also includes discussions with some of our industry’s most noted designers who share their experience across the broad scope of entertainment lighting.
RSVP

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USA - Rising high over the flatland at the mouth of the Manitowoc River as it flows into Lake Michigan, the Briess Grain Tower in Manitowoc, WI, has served a familiar landmark for sailors and townspeople for generations. On the night of Friday 10 April, the venerable structure offered another kind of hope and reassurance. From 7:45 to 11 pm, it glowed in blue against the clear, dark sky as a show of solidarity and support for the healthcare workers and front-liners during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Local businesses, The Wharf Manitowoc, Powerhouse Productions and Brennan Seehafer Productions, came up with the idea of lighting the tower, along with another landmark, the decommissioned WWII submarine, USS Cobia, to honour these unsung heroes.
“They are making great sacrifices to ensure that things continue to function during the pandemic, and this is a way for our communi
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