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South Africa - Nexo is working with the new generation in South Africa’s technical production community, providing free skills training and access to the latest Nexo sound reinforcement equipment in the country’s major cities.
With extensive support from the full-service production company Sound Stylists, a long-time Nexo user and dealer, Nexo has collaborated with South Africa’s Academy of Sound Engineering in Cape Town. Together, they hosted a free ETC training course encompassing workshops, hands-on and listening experiences, and an overview of Nexo’s line array evolution, from Geo S and D ranges to the contemporary Geo M and STM Series.
Presented by Nexo’s leading training engineer Nicholas Poitrenaud, the three-day seminar was attended by students and teachers from ASE, freelance engineers, house of worship technicians, and audio techs from Sound Stylist

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Germany - Lawo launched its 50th anniversary celebrations in January with a Michelin-star studded party for its 300-plus employees in the company’s hometown in Rastatt, close to the Rhine River and the Black Forest region of Germany.
The milestone anniversary follows the company’s most successful business year to date, achieving a record revenue result that represented growth of 40 per cent. This performance was generated by an extraordinary uptake of Lawo’s IP media solutions based around core products of video, audio, workflow and monitoring technologies.
Founded by Peter Lawo in 1970, Lawo started out as an engineering office providing bespoke technical solutions before focusing on broadcast and media production technology. The creative drive of its founder and his son Philipp, who took over as CEO in 1999, ensured continual innovation helped evolve and grow t

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UK - The addition of a scalable, arena-sized system has been confirmed by Adlib director and client manager, Dave Jones, and Joe East, business development Manager of Sound Technology, the UK and Ireland Harman Professional Solutions distributor.
The system itself comprises 48 x VTX A12 dual-12” line-array elements; 16 x VTX A8 dual-8” compact line-array elements; 24 x VTX S28 dual-18" subwoofers and 8 x VTX B18 single-18" subwoofers.
Powering these will be Harman’s Crown VRack complete touring amp rack solution; ten racks loaded with three Crown I-Tech 4x3500HD amplifiers, and four racks housing three Crown I-Tech12000HD amplifiers.
Jones said the re-investment in JBL had been “merely a matter of time; we have always wanted to offer our clients a choice of systems and it is great to have JBL back as an option”. But it had been the substantial upgrade i

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Finland - Genelec has opened a new extension to its lakeside factory in Iisalmi, Finland. Utilising the latest technologies, the extension will significantly increase the space, flexibility and efficiency of the company’s warehousing and logistics operations, while ensuring that the entire facility is now powered exclusively by sustainable sources including solar, wind and hydroelectric energy.
For over four decades Genelec has consistently followed a path of sustainable development and environmental responsibility, and has made recycled materials, low energy consumption and long product lifespan central to its design philosophy.
The current factory by Porovesi Lake in Iisalmi was built in 1985 with an architectural design that complements its natural surroundings, and was designed to significantly reduce energy wastage through its use of heat recovery and generous

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The Netherlands - UK-based Polar announced at ISE 2020 the addition of ClearOne, UMA and Utelogy to its portfolio.
Polar “sees the provision of cloud-based technologies, which are helping to revolutionise the management and control of resources within a wide variety of workplaces, as essential tools for the future, emphasising the company’s drive to be far more than a simple distributor of products”.
US-based ClearOne produces hardware and software for complete collaboration and communication solutions. From ad-hoc workspaces, huddle rooms and mobile conferences to the largest meeting venues and boardrooms, ClearOne has a large range of audio conferencing, visual collaboration and AV networking solutions to address every need, significantly broadening Polar’s offering in the sphere of fast-evolving meeting room trends.
UMA is a privacy-first digital ass

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The Netherlands - Integrated Systems Europe and global media brand TNW (The Next Web) have announced a multi-year strategic relationship aimed at bringing the best of tech and innovation to ISE 2021 and its new Barcelona home.
Formed in 2006 and now one of the world’s largest online media brands, TNW is primarily known for its news outlet thenextweb.com and award-winning tech event TNW Conference. The company also incorporates a co-working label, a global startup database and delivers custom innovation programmes to corporates and governments. The annual TNW conference in Amsterdam attracts senior executives from the world’s leading business and technology brands.
As part of ISE’s 2021 edition at Gran Via, Fira de Barcelona, on 2-5 February, TNW will programme three new content tracks focused on technology and its impact on society. This will run in parallel to

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The Netherlands - The OCA Alliance has added Adamson Systems Engineering as its latest member company.
“Adamson has stepped up as a major advocate in the media networking development and standards arena,” says OCA Alliance marketing chairman Ethan Wetzell, “Their support of the AES70 standard in recent product developments is a significant milestone for the industry. Needless to say, we are extremely pleased to welcome them into the alliance.”
Commenting for Adamson Systems Engineering, head of product and technology, Brian Fraser states: “As an audio manufacturer, we recognise the immense benefit open source protocols offer to the industry as a whole. Open Control Architecture is a protocol we've been investing in for a while and we're happy our choice has been validated and standardised by the AES as AES70.”
ISE 2020 sees a significant number of new

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UK - Audio production company Major Tom has invested in 20 Luminex GigaCore 10 network switches to create one of the largest Milan AVB-compliant Meyer Sound touring PA systems in Europe.
With offices in the UK and USA, Major Tom has over 50 years of experience supplying some of the world’s leading international concert tours and events.
When it came to investing in network switches to work with its large inventory of Meyer Sound line arrays, it was important for Major Tom to go with a solution which was widely adopted, as well as being compatible with the new Milan AVB standard.
The company discussed its requirements with Steve Eaton, senior sales executive in the dedicated audio division of Luminex exclusive UK distributor, A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET).
Major Tom project manager, Andy Banks comments: “With Meyer Sound’s equipment support

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UK - Unusual Rigging has achieved a series of compliance standards that will provide its customers with the guarantee that its products and services consistently meet their requirements.
The Northampton-based company achieved both ISO 9001 which sets out the criteria for a quality management system, and ISO 14001 which focuses on environmental systems. Unusual is currently working towards securing ISO 45001 for good health and safety practice.
At the forefront of steering Unusual towards achieving these new standards are operations manager Lizzie Richmond and technical manager Tom Nightingale.
Richmond comments: ““We are extremely proud to have secured these ISO standards, which, though not compulsory, demonstrate to our customers that we are leading the way with our policies and processes. When we tender for work we are increasingly being asked to demonstrat

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Italy - Founded in 1992 by Gianni De Masi and Paolo Boscolo in Villorba di Treviso (in north-eastern Italy), Imputlevel Group rapidly became one of Italy's leading audio rental firms.
Through the years, its client roster in the live and tour field expanded to include not only top names on the Italian scene, such as Fiorella Mannoia, Franco Battiato, Daniele Silvestri, Niccolò Fabi, Irene Grandi, Vinicio Capossela, Nek and Max Pezzali, but also international stars of the calibre of Lou Reed, Elton John, Duran Duran, Peter Gabriel, Bjork, Massive Attack, Steve Vai, Simple Minds, Carlos Santana, Ben Harper, Rage Against the Machine, Prodigy and many more.
In order to be able to meet any request, from the supply of technology for live events, such as theatres, conferences, exhibitions, tourist attractions and television events, to custom designs and system engineering, iM

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France - L-Acoustics is rolling out L-ISA Auditoria in strategic locations around the globe. Demonstrations, training or mixing sessions of L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound technology can be accessed in dozens of locations in L-ISA Auditoria designed to stringent L-Acoustics specifications, says the company.
“To support the development of L-ISA technology in the professional audio market, we have developed pre-determined systems for either mobile or permanent L-ISA Auditoria, which can be deployed to support existing partners, artists and potential clients,” explains Cédric Montrézor, executive director of applications at L-Acoustics. “The network of L-ISA Auditoria around the globe is designed to exacting standards to guarantee the natural, intimate spatialised experience of L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound technology.”
Two versions of the packages are availa

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Europe - SixEye has announced that ETC has become a SixEye Connected manufacturer, with its Mosaic range of architectural lighting controllers the first in the company’s product portfolio to benefit from SixEye’s unified remote management platform.
SixEye provides a cloud-based SaaS (Software as a Service) solution, enabling remote management of professional control devices. SixEye combines the management and control of products from multiple manufacturers into one portal, easily accessible in a web browser on desktop and mobile.
Systems integrators can have their own SixEye portal at their own domain. The portal carries the integrator’s own branding, allows them to invite end users into any project site in the portal, and grant them bespoke access with SixEye's granular permissions. Device management includes firmware and file upload, triggering, real time sta

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USA - The Behind the Scenes booth at the recent NAMM Show proved to be a hit once again for fans of Neal Preston’s rock’n’roll photography. The exhibit was made possible by the generosity of the Lightpower Collection.
Lightpower, founded in 1978 in Germany, is an internationally established distributor for stage and studio lighting equipment. The Lightpower Collection was born out of a company culture with a passion for collecting rock’n’roll art. The collection features photography and album cover artwork from many of the world’s greatest photographers and designers. Neal Preston’s photography represents the core of this collection and comprises over 70 large-format original fine art prints.
At the show, Ralph-Jörg Wezorke, founder of Lightpower and the Collection, continued their ongoing support of Behind the Scenes by presenting a cheque for $11,800

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Canada - Three L-Acoustics trainers - Frédéric Blanc-Garin, Marcus Ross and André Pichette - recently came to Solotech’s Montreal offices to offer an intensive three-day training on L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound technology.
For two additional days, clients, consultants and industry professionals had the opportunity to try the ecosystem and experience the technology.
“Immersive audio is playing an increasingly important role in our various markets. It was therefore with great interest that we held a week-long training session for our specialized technicians and offered personalized demonstrations to several industry players,” said François ‘Frankie’ Desjardins, vice-president, research & development at Solotech.
Truly revolutionary, L-ISA technology enables artists to create new multidimensional sound experiences in productions that use live or

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UK - Audiologic has signed a new distribution agreement with console manufacturer DiGiCo, to promote and distribute its S-Series and 4REA4 digital mixers to the corporate pro AV market in the UK.
The addition of the highly engineered S-Series and 4REA4 digital mixing consoles from DiGiCo will both enhance and complement the already broad range of products available from Audiologic, offering versatility and reliability in equal measure.
“As the Audiologic business continues to grow, our long-term strategy is to enhance and transform our offering into providing a world-class solution at every level, accessible to every market. This exciting new distribution agreement continues this process,” comments Andy Lewis, managing director of Audiologic.
“DiGiCo is already at the forefront of digital mixing technology and has the same desire to reach out to wider mark

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South Africa - Vectorworks trainer Dylan Jones of DWR Distribution, will present Vectorworks Spotlight training from 2-6 March in Johannesburg.
The course will be split up into Basic (2 March) at R800 per person, Intermediate (3 - 4 March) at R1,400 per person and Advanced training (5 - 6 March) at R1,400 per person.
Subjects include layouts and palettes, basic tools, classes and layers, Spotlight tools, intermediate tools, worksheets and reports, 3D modelling, resource management and file import and export.
The training will be hosted at DWR Distribution, C1, Kimbult Industrial Park, 9 Zeiss Road, Laserpark, Honeydew. Bookings online at dwrdistribution.co.za/register/vectorworks-spotlight-training-march-2020.

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UK - Independent audio rental providers Total Sound Solutions in Swansea and Pulse PA in Poole have consolidated an informal alliance around their purchases of Nexo’s new Geo M12 mid-size line array system.
Both TSS and Pulse PA have taken delivery of near-identical Nexo Geo M12 inventories, with MSUB18 subbass, NXAMP Mk2 amplifiers and flyware which allows them to mix and match their new M12 elements with their smaller Nexo Geo M10 systems. Now the two mid-size rental companies are evolving their business models so as to benefit from co-operation and integrated inventories to bid on larger projects.
“We already owned Geo M10,” says Ralph Walsh, MD of Pulse PA, “and have done all our 2019 summer festivals with the system: in fact, in the last two years, it has rarely been in the warehouse and I’d say we’ve made more money out of it than any other Nexo syste

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USA - Solotech was recently recognised with the Parnelli Award as Lighting Company of the Year for their work supporting P!nk’s The Beautiful Trauma world tour. This marks the fourth Parnelli Award won by Solotech in recent years.
The 19th edition of the Parnelli Awards were held on 17 January in Anaheim during The NAMM Show.
In attendance was Martin Tremblay, CEO of Solotech, who commented on the recognition of the company and its team. “I was very pleased to be able to attend the Parnelli Awards and support our team in Live Productions, as well as the many Solotech clients that were nominated. We take a tremendous amount of pride as a company in the Live Production team and the support they provide to clients around the globe.”
“We are very honoured to have so many nominations this year and are truly proud of this win for our lighting support on

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USA - The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon is already enjoying TurboRay fixtures this season in its New York City studio, under lighting director Fred Bock. So when the show trekked to Texas for a taping in Austin, 24 of the special effect LED wash lights were designed into the rig at Bass Concert Hall.
Mick Smith of Eastern Lighting Design serves as lighting designer for the remote shows outside the NBC studios. His choice to continue using TurboRay was simple. “I was wanting a fixture with a larger aperture and more homogenised, attractive look to it. The diffusers on the TurboRay checked that box,” he explains.
“Secondly, I wanted a fixture with a decent zoom range that could especially give me great beams. A real bonus was having quad control of the LED engines - and the aerial effects we were able to quickly achieve - to give us unique looks for the

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UK - Polar has been appointed exclusive distributor in the UK and ROI for new US-based professional amplifier manufacturer LEA. This new company has been in existence since January 2019, when a team of industry veterans with more than 200 years combined experience in the sector, steered by founder and CEO Blake Augsburger, set out to imagine a new approach to audio technology.
LEA’s Connect Series range, with standard and Dante-enabled options, addresses the needs of the installation market, catering for the widest possible range of applications in small and medium scale projects. As the world’s first IoT-enabled, professional-grade amplifiers, these two and four channel models have an intuitive web app interface that allows control by phone, tablet, PC or laptop. With various network access options, including an onboard WiFi point, access for setup and programming is fa

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UK - Bristol-based specialist hire and events business SLX has completed the move to a new warehouse as a result of planned growth and continued investment.
The business, which has heritage dating back more than 40 years and serves the live events, hire and broadcast markets throughout the UK and Europe, remains in a Bristol location, moving from its warehouse on Third Way, Avonmouth, to another nearby Avonmouth location.
SLX CEO Alastair Currie comments: “After only four years since our previous warehouse upgrade, we are moving again to allow for further expansion. We’re doing so as we believe this is essential for the ambitions we have for the business. It will see improved preparation spaces, improved flow of equipment into and out of the warehouse, and markedly better facilities for both our team and those who come to prep shows and events at the warehouse.

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France/USA - Loudspeaker specialist Active Audio has announced the appointment of Allied ProTech as its exclusive distributor for the US.
Founded in 2002 in Nantes, Active Audio has forged a global reputation for loudspeakers that deliver “superior sound performance, intelligibility, and neutrality”, with installations in some of the world’s most prestigious, yet acoustically challenging spaces.
“We’re very excited about our new partnership with Active Audio,” remarks Allied ProTech founder and president Rik Kirby. “They are a company that is constantly innovating and finding better ways to deliver superior audio performance. Their StepArray column loudspeakers deliver outstanding intelligibility in reverberant spaces, using fewer DSP channels, without the complex and expensive electronics that make most steered arrays so difficult to install and set up.

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Europe - LG Electronics and German Light Products (GLP) are among the companies to announce their withdrawal from next week’s Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) event in Amsterdam in response to the Coronavirus outbreak.
Seoul-based LG Electronics, one of the show’s top 250 exhibitors, was the first to announce that it will not be attending the exhibition.
“LG regrets having to make this difficult decision but the safety of its employees and customers continues to be its number one priority,” said a company statement. “With the World Health Organization (WHO) recommending that individuals ‘promote social distancing’, LG management believed that the most responsible decision is to avoid participating in large public events until the situation stabilizes.”
GLP’s CEO and founder Udo Künzler stated: “As I’m sure you know, business meetings and exh

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Germany - The Area Four Industries Direct Germany office organised an EXE Technology training session.
Held in Emsdetten and led by sales and marketing manager, Carsten Pfeiffer (Area Four Industries Direct Germany), and EXE Technology automation manager, Gianluca Ferrari, the training provided the attendees with a complete overview of EXE Technology’s range of chain hoists, load cells, controllers, and DSTs (Dynamic Stack Tracks). The session then moved on to specific facts and detailed information about models within the EXE Rise and Vario chain hoist ranges, which included classifications, key features and components.
To gain a better understanding of how EXE hoists work, attendees witnessed a complete strip down of the chain hoist and learned about its operation from the inside out. After the mechanical heart of the hoist was put back together, a complete overv
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