Business

Details
UK - Live event production educational facility Backstage Academy has signed a new partnership agreement with professional loudspeaker manufacturer KV2 Audio.
KV2 Audio, whose R&D and manufacturing base is in the Czech Republic, has worked informally with the academic institution, based at Production Park in Wakefield, for the past two years, providing equipment for student-led events on an ad hoc basis and presenting seminars.
“These seminars are always well received,” says Tom Weldon, who is in charge of UK sales. “We have an exclusively point source approach to loudspeaker design and are proud to be able to present this approach to the technicians of the future. We strongly believe this is the best way to reproduce the original source, and in a market that is dominated by alternative designs it’s important that students are exposed to all options. We tr

Details
UAE - PSAV has announced the acquisition of eclipse, the AV and live event production and venue company operating in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. The terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.
Eclipse, founded in 2003 by Mark Brown, is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of PSAV and will continue to operate under the eclipse brand name. eclipse CEO Simon Ransom and his senior team will remain in place and continue to execute on their growth plans, now in partnership with PSAV. Ransom will assume leadership of PSAV UAE operations, and work with Nik Rudge, PSAV’s managing director, international, and his team.
“Eclipse is an exciting addition to the PSAV group of companies due to its extensive in-house venues and event production expertise, and strong alignment to our purpose and mission,” comments Rudge. “I am delighted about what this means for PSAV, and more

Details
UK - The market value of the UK entertainment technology industry has grown by an estimated 5% in the past 12 months, according to PLASA research.
This puts the industry’s value at £1.36bn in 2018/19, up from £1.30bn in 2017/18. The sectors with the largest growth include architecture, broadcast and corporate events, which are valued at £250m, £220m and £160m respectively.
Only a third of the businesses surveyed expect the industry to grow in 2019/20 however, the main concern being how and when the UK will exit the European Union.
The full report, which follows on from PLASA’s comprehensive industry research released in 2018, details sector by sector performance, investment in marketing and R&D, and the future outlook for the industry.

Details
UK - Wakefield’s cathedral staged the official ceremony for 74 Backstage Academy (BA) students who graduated recently.
Students had their various production degrees conferred by Dr. Sue Duncan, assistant Vice chancellor and registrar, University of Bolton (with whom Backstage Academy is partnered).
They were also honoured by their various course leaders as they prepared to leave academia and enter the production world. Johnny Goodwin (Live Events Production), Graham Thorne (Live Visual Design & Production) and Claire Porter (Stage & Production Management) in turn accoladed their respective students as they filed up to the stage.
As Goodwin put it, “It’s always a great occasion to meet the families. They shake your hand and thank you for the guidance once they can see there is a job at the end of it, and that [students] are not simply running away t

Details
UK - Music industry charity Music Support has partnered with 10 companies and organisations to train industry professionals in mental health first aid (MHFA).
The drive has been prompted by an in-house initiative led by the charity in 2018, when it invested in MHFA training for its own staff and volunteers.
Music Support will work with The Event Safety Shop (TESS), a live event production safety service; industry charities Help Musicians and The BRIT Trust - the charitable arm of BPI; PLASA; The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF); Production Park; Backstage Academy; PSA and its benevolent fund, Stage Hand; and Thrive: Mental Wellbeing - an NHS-endorsed app designed to help people combat stress.
Matt Thomas, Music Support’s co-founder and chair of trustees, comments: “MHFA training is becoming a priority for businesses across many industries and sec

Details
Switzerland - Prolights has announced the appointment of Plusmusic AG as its distributor for Switzerland with immediate effect.
Plusmusic takes over in the Swiss market which historically has been served directly from the Prolights Italian HQ, inheriting a network of users, who will benefit from the distributor’s local sales and demo stock, and qualified technical support team.
Paolo Albani, international sales manager for Prolights says, “Plusmusic is a natural match to carry on the Prolights brand in the Swiss market. They share the same passion of our team when it comes to lighting technologies, and having full access to the market in its various segments and as well providing a high class customer service, we are very sure they will be a great asset for our swiss partners.”
Gianluca Trevisan, sales manager of Plusmusic, adds, “We are excited to join t

Details

UK - Audio visual production supplier SFL is running a series of courses, inviting anyone working in the audio industry to attend.
These include a Yamaha Networked Audio Systems workshop, DiGiCo SD consoles training, Midas PRO Series consoles training day, and an Introduction to Live Audio For Church.
Harvey Appleton, SFL project manager who is also one of the course teachers, comments: “We believe that education is vital and running these courses is a great way for SFL to share its knowledge with the industry and we find it extremely rewarding. This is why we have developed a range of courses that focus around the equipment we use most frequently and subjects, such as live audio for churches, where which we know can be challenging, particularly for those that don’t have years of experience.”
The Yamaha workshop is an opportunity to get hands-on

Details
Denmark - Allen & Heath has named Light Partner as its exclusive distributor for Denmark.
The new distribution partnership is active with immediate effect.
Allen & Heath’s EMEA sales manager, Fred Cresson, comments: “Allen & Heath has a strong, loyal following in Denmark, particularly in live sound and installation. We are therefore delighted to be working with Light Partner to continue providing first-class support to our Danish customers, and to explore the opportunities to keep developing the brand.”
Stig Meyer Jensen, Light Partner’s CEO, adds: “With the new Avantis adding to an already unbeatable line-up of consoles, Allen & Heath is the mixer brand everybody is talking about right now. We’re proud to be appointed to distribute A&H in Denmark and we’ve invested in a highly experienced team to deliver the outstanding backup t

Details
UK - TAIT has acquired Wakefield-based Brilliant Stages to create “an even more competitive platform capable of deploying a truly global suite of live event technology and solutions”.
The leadership and staff at both companies is expected to remain the same. It is unclear if Brilliant will continue to exist as a separate brand, but TAIT has stated that “the combined management teams see the value of building a global brand.” All existing projects will continue as scheduled and all points of contact will remain the same.
Ben Brooks, managing director of Brilliant, comments: “We have built the brand brick-by-brick with an equal focus on spectacle, design, employees, and customers. That is what makes being part of TAIT a perfect match, culturally we are 100% aligned.”
Adam Davis, chief creative officer at TAIT, adds: “This really is a perfect cultural

Details
Major Revamp - The Brit Awards have announced a major revamp for 2020, with fewer awards and an end to fan votes. Organisers promise "more music" as a result, with artists being given full creative control of their performances. Prizes like Best British Video and Best International Group have been cut, while the outstanding contribution award has been retired for 2020. Despite press reports earlier this year, gendered awards will remain part of the ceremony.
The changes come after several years of falling ratings. This year's ceremony, which saw performances from Pink, Dua Lipa and George Ezra, was watched by 4.1m people, down 400,000 from 2018.
This year, all awards will be decided by a 1,200-strong "official voting academy", made up of “experts” from all areas of the music industry. Brits chairman David Joseph explained the changes, saying: "We will be putting cr

Details
UAE - Sixty82 has appointed Unusual Rigging & Engineering LLC as its exclusive representative in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Saudi Arabia, for its full trussing and staging product range. Unusual Rigging will exercise supervision on a broad scope of possibilities, advising customers on the best Sixty82 solution for their specific needs.
Unusual Rigging is a highly experienced provider of rigging and stage engineering solutions, working around the globe, principally in the entertainment, special event, exhibition and presentation industries. In 2009 Unusual Rigging & Engineering LLC opened for business. Unusual Rigging’s specialist teams boast a wide range of disciplines, and all are passionate about what they do. “At Sixty82, we share this passion for the industry,” comments Fokko Smeding, CEO of Sixty82. “We therefore believe that Unusual Rigging &a

Details
Switzerland - Audac has appointed Radio Matériel as the exclusive distributor of its audio solutions in Switzerland. Radio Matériel will be handling sales, distribution and service of the complete Audac product line-up from their offices in Renens near Lausanne.
Radio-Matériel SA is a wholesaler specialised in the import and distribution of audiovisual products in both installed as live environments. The company has a long history that dates back to the year 1932.
Radio Matériel CEO Christian Cornaz looks towards the partnership. “Audac impressed us with their innovative product range, therefore we are delighted to be adding their products into our catalogue. Together with Audac, we will be able to meet the needs and requirements of our customers even more.”
Audac’s international sales director, Marc Asselberghs adds: “We at Audac are always looking

Details
USA - New Jersey-based Starlite has purchased a complement of Ayrton Khamsin-S, Ayrton's latest compact profile fixture. Starlite has one of the largest inventories of AV, lighting and control equipment on the East Coast and services the broadcast, concert touring, corporate, performing arts and educational markets.
The fixture is the first Ayrton product that Starlite has purchased. “ACT Lighting (Ayrton’s exclusive distributor for in North America) demo’d the whole Ayrton line for us, and we evaluated the Khamsins in our shop for our rental inventory and use on our own productions,” comments president and CEO, Dean Danowitz.
“There was a fair amount of debate internally regarding which profile fixture we should invest in next,” notes Jason Danowitz, vice president of event technology. “Ultimately, we chose the Khamsin-S because it checked so many boxes

Details
UAE - Technical and staging solutions provider Protec has become the first company to order Claypaky’s new laser-source moving head Xtylos. Protec inked a deal to receive 350 units of the fixture and became the first AV equipment supplier in the Middle East to take delivery of Xtylos in September. The company has also added 48 of Claypaky Sharpy Plus fixtures to its inventory.
“We are very excited that Protec was the first in our world sales network to place the order at Prolight + Sound 2019 in Frankfurt where we launched Xtylos,” says Egor Popovski for Claypaky in the Middle East. “Protec is also the first in the Middle East to receive the shipment of these fixtures and has become the largest stockist of Xtylos in the Middle East region.”
Aaron Russ, head of Protec’s lighting department, adds: “Protec is always investing in the latest technologies, and

Details
Belgium - Established 21 years ago, the PFL Group has grown to become one of the Benelux countries’ leading technical production businesses, servicing over 1500 projects annually with high quality sound, lighting, video and set productions. Constantly developing to meet the demands of its customers, PFL has just invested in more Yamaha digital mixing consoles.
Investing in the latest technologies and new equipment is a vital part of being able to offer the best service in the fast-moving live and installed sound industries. This is why PFL has recently purchased two Yamaha QL5 and two QL1 digital mixing consoles, plus a pair of Rio1608-D2 I/O rack units.
“The impressive, trusted QL series offers an excellent all-in-one mixing solution for small to medium-sized live events,” says Dominic De Gruyter, owner and CEO at PFL. “With the new QL series in house, we are

Details
Brazil - Prolights has confirmed HPL Light Company as its distributor for Brazil.
Alberto Da Silva, sales manager of HPL comments: “Prolights is the perfect addition to our offering here in Brazil. The importance placed on the customer and their journey is part of why we do what we do here. The difference comes with the fixtures they create, stemming from the design and development processes - they feature sets and types of fixtures are to answer a specific need or gap in the market and not just another me-too fixture. With the increasingly growing popularity of Prolights fixtures in North America we have seen this influence the uptake here in South America.”
Prolights international sales manager, Paolo Albani adds: “Having HPL on-board as a partner is Brazil is great. They bring with them a wealth of local and market knowledge, experience and connections. We re

Details
Belgium - With more than 45 AV Stumpfl media servers as part of their rental stock - all of which are updated to run the latest version of the Pixera system - AED Display has become the world's largest provider of AV Stumpfl media server systems.
In addition to offering the new Pixera servers as a rental product to their customers, AED Display has organised and successfully conducted multiple Pixera training sessions in Belgium since ordering additional servers at this year's ISE exhibition in Amsterdam.
AED Display managing director Thierry Heldenbergh explains the importance of providing training sessions in addition to the hardware itself: "Compared to other systems out there, Pixera is still the new kid on the block. This has many advantages and also brings some challenges. The advantage is that we can be among the first companies worldwide to offer a new media ser

Details
USA - Through broadcast and online digital channels, First Baptist Dallas’ reach expands beyond its in-house attendance. With a following that spans tens of thousands of worshippers, the megachurch takes its audio and video capabilities very seriously, looking to lead audio engineer Brad Roberts to choose just the right gear.
Most recently, Roberts became one of the first US users of DPA Microphones’ new 6066 CORE Subminiature Headset Microphone, relying on its capabilities to provide a discreet, high-quality sound for the church’s lead pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress.
“I chose to upgrade the lead pastor’s microphone to DPA’s 6066 because of its impressively small capsule and redesigned headset - for such an unobtrusive solution, the sound quality is impeccable,” explains Roberts. “The 6066 is completely hidden from close-up HD camera shots and its non-refl

Details
Europe - JoeCo has signed a pair of distribution agreements that will ensure a greater number of European end users will have local access to the company’s full product range. The deals, which were signed at IBC, follow hot on the heels of the announcement that Beirut’s Boujikian Bros has taken on JoeCo distribution.
Tonspur AG has become the official JoeCo representative for both Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The company, based in Adligenswil, already has a number of important pro audio brands on its roster.
“We are delighted to be working with Tonspur in both Switzerland and Liechtenstein,” says Graham Murray, business development at JoeCo. “Their knowledge and reach into the local market is second to none and I’m sure their customers will be excited to get hands-on with the full JoeCo range.”
Tonspur is also highly active in the local audio comm

Details
Europe - Trussing, staging and hoists manufacturer Prolyte has been acquired by Area Four Industries.
The news of the acquisition comes shortly after Prolyte filed for bankruptcy. Prolyte will retain its brand identity but will undergo a management, production and strategic reorganisation.
František Zykan, CEO of Area Four Industries, comments: “We will invest in the development of Prolyte as a brand, as well as in new ideas and products. Our current partners remain equally important for us. I trust that in two years, Prolyte will be number one in customer satisfaction.”
Founded in 1991 and headquartered in the Netherlands, Prolyte has an office and warehouse in the USA, an Asian office and factory in Guangzhou, China, and a European warehouse in Germany. Its portfolio includes ProlyteStructures, ProlyteSystems, StageDex, and ProLyft.
Area Four Industr

Details
Property Moves - An immersive Monopoly experience is the first show to be announced under a new partnership between Selladoor Worldwide and games company Hasbro Inc. The collaboration will see the theatre company and Hasbro adapt more boardgames into live experiences in the future. While further productions have not yet been confirmed, other boardgames in Hasbro’s portfolio include Cluedo, Risk, Trivial Pursuit, Twister and Operation.
Monopoly will run at a location in London which is yet to be announced in 2020. The experience will include a 75-minute segment where teams will compete to win tasks in order to move along the board, buy properties, and attempt to win the game. Features from the game including famous London landmarks, chance, community chest and jail will all be “brought to life” in a space that will also f

Details
UK - disguise studio partner and workflow specialists, Bild Studios has invested in the new gx 2c hardware.
Bild is a London-based visual engineering studio with credits including the opening ceremony for the Pakistan Super League, where 50 minutes of AR graphics replaced traditional pre-rendered content that usually is mapped onto projection surfaces or LED screens inside the venue.
Founders David Bajt and Rowan Pitts have been working with disguise for over 10 years, delivering hundreds of software training sessions globally, while also using the technology on some of their most ambitious projects.
“We've always put a lot of effort and detail into the pre-production, where precise system designs and creative content workflows are developed. We see ourselves living in the great world between tech and cutting-edge visual design, advising people and companies fr

Details
Italy - Holoplot’s audio solutions are now available through partner company Leading Technologies, the immersive sound specialist has announced.
Founded in 1978, Monza-based Leading Technologies is a pro AV specialist with decades of experience in sectors including theatre, concert arenas and retail.
Leading Technologies has spent time over the last few months becoming familiar with the benefits of Holoplot systems, and a team from the company attended a three-day training event at Holoplot’s Berlin base.
Danilo Meroni, live division manager and audio technical support, and Mauro Lavazza, installation division manager, at Leading Technologies, described the training event as “wonderful” and said that their team was delighted to encounter “very knowledgeable technical and commercial staff, and to have the chance to explore the potential and technical cap

Details
UK - New research, carried out by Bournemouth University for the Events Industry Forum, has revealed that outdoor events have been much undervalued for the contribution they make to the UK economy, both locally and nationally, with a Gross Value of over £30 billion and providing employment for some 589,000 people.
The research, funded by sales of the Purple Guide, is thought to be the first comprehensive study of the market to be undertaken. Its findings were introduced to key industry players at an event at the House of Commons on 24 October.
In 2018, the year which was the focus of the study, over 140 million people attended outdoor events according to the researchers, ranging from music festivals to fairs and steam rallies. The good news for the industry is that 84% of those attendees were satisfied with the way events are run, and the majority of interviewees fe
  1. WIcreations acquires Visual act assets
  2. Genelec opens Berlin Experience Centre
  3. Live for Broadcast shortlist announced for KOI-USA
  4. L-Acoustics demo in Durban
  5. Inspiration abounds at AES New York 2019
  6. Registration opens for Vectorworks Summit
Page 215 of 1813

Latest Issue. . .