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Sweden - Adamson Systems Engineering and Benum Sweden have announced a strategic new distribution agreement for the Swedish market, which finds the two companies working in tandem with previous distributor Stonehouse Show Technologies AB to build the premium loudspeaker brand’s sales and profile in Scandinavia’s largest economy.
In the new arrangement, Benum will oversee Swedish distribution while Stonehouse will maintain its strong focus on AV installations as an Adamson integration partner. Stonehouse’s sister production rental company Soundforce Scandinavian AB will remain a key Adamson rental account and provide senior consultancy and demo support across the country, especially for larger and higher-profile projects.
“Our partnership with Adamson is built on a shared set of values and has been very successful in Norway,” begins Peter Engström, CEO of Ben

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UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) was recently appointed as the UK-exclusive distributor for Swedish-based StageSmarts AB's smartPDU intelligent power distribution system, which received a PLASA Award for Innovation at this year's show at London Olympia.
The appointment extends AC-ET's portfolio of innovative and leading power, distro & dimming brands for all entertainment applications, including touring, theatre, education, and TV / studio.
AC-ET's UK sales & purchasing director, Jonathan Walters, commented: “We are delighted to add StageSmarts to our portfolio. As a company always looking for the next true innovation in entertainment technology, the smartPDU really stands out as a game-changer in its product category - something which both the PLASA Awards judging panel and visitors to our stand seemed to agree with.”
(Jim Evans)

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USA - Grace Church’s new campus in North Carolina’s Research Triangle benefits from AVL system installed by the CSD Group.
With its sweeping inwardly curved stage, gently arched ceiling, fanned seating arrangements, the inside of the church resembles a contemporary theatre or conference centre yet makes worshippers feel at home by projecting a sense of warmth and intimacy via the Chauvet Professional Ovation and COLORdash LED luminaires that CSD used to anchor the lighting system.
“This church is fully contemporary in style, but its leaders also wanted an immersive environment with a sense of transcendence,” says Doug Hood, president of the CSD Group. “The even warm white front and stage lighting we got from the Ovation fixtures makes it easy for worshippers to see the stage and connect to the people on it. When you look at a well-lit stage, you are more like

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Australia - Novatech assisted with the technical solution at the 68th International Astronautical Congress held on 25-29 September at the Adelaide Convention Centre’s Plenary Building.
Adelaide’s Ding Productions & Slingsby Theatre were engaged to create a bespoke opening performance. Ding’s creative producer Jo Casson worked with Novatech’s Leko Novakovic to design an interactive setting where the live performers on stage would perform in a holographic environment in a performance, The Journey.
Novatech debuted their new 4K resolution, 32,000 ANSI Laser Projectors that created an illusion of space on stage. The company also worked with Richard Saunders from Ikonix to take advantage of the latest generation of holographic technology, Hologauze.
Managing director of Novatech, Leko Novakovic, said: “We were thrilled to use the latest generations

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UK - Flare Audio has received recognition by the Government as a leading UK innovator, following the publication of The Parliamentary Review this autumn.
The annual review, published by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, showcases businesses that demonstrate best practice at every level of industry, and features a foreword by the Prime Minister, Theresa May.
Flare Audio founder Davies Roberts described how, since launching in 2010, the company developed a revolutionary new type of loudspeaker and earphone technology for professional and consumer use, providing a previously unheard level of audio clarity.
Sir Eric Pickles, chairman of the Review, said: “It has never been more important for government to hear the views of business and the public sector in a constructive forum. It is also a vital time to share best practice and progre

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UK - The International Theatre Engineering and Architecture Conference (ITEAC) has confirmed TAIT Stage Technologies as the principal sponsor of the 2018 conference, taking place in London on 3-5 June 2018.
TAIT Stage Technologies is the event’s major sponsor for a fourth consecutive conference, having been one of the founder sponsors of the initial event in 2002.
ABTT chief executive, Robin Townley, comments, “The commitment to supporting ITEAC 2018 that TAIT Stage Technologies has so generously made, is hugely important to allowing the next edition to be presented.
Presented by the Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT), the fifth edition of the quadrennial event will take place on Sunday 3 June, Monday 4 June and Tuesday 5 June 2018 at Savoy Place, the global engineering hub of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).
A Call

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Australia - Ariana Grande brought her Dangerous Woman Tour to Australia this September and JPJ Audio joined her on the road.
FOH engineer Simon ‘Si’ Thomas specified a Clair Cohesion PA to be utilised for her entire tour – unless when unavailable in certain country when an L-Acoustics K1 or d&b J series were use.
“It’s very compact and lightweight compared to other line arrays in its class and it’s got lots of headroom,” commented Thomas. “It has a really good high/mid which is very smooth. With this kind of music there’s a lot of odd sub content that goes down really low with which the CP-218’s do a really good job. The CP-218 sub is particularly good, it’s very powerful.”
In Sydney, Ariana played the ICC Sydney Theatre with 16 CO-12 per side in the main hang, 12 CO-12 per side in the side-hang and three CP-218 flown per side i

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Russia - The Spy Moscow Club in the city’s Triumphal Square has specified a matched system of Nexo Geo S12 and PS Series loudspeakers.
The installation was completed by DJSOUND Company, which had to design a system that fitted with the club interior and met the most stringent audio performance requirements.
“The system had to provide uniform coverage with awesome sound quality,” explained Gulya Zaripova of Nexo’s Russian distributor SIM. “The Spy Moscow club has a varied itinerary of entertainments and events; live music, DJs and karaoke, as well as background music, so the system had to work across all those applications. And the club wanted it installed within very tight deadlines.”
For the live music stage, a main PA of Geo S12 Series was selected, together with RS18 subbass. In the VIP zones, a combination of Nexo PS8 and PS10-R2 speakers were fit

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UK - Global provider of event technology services PSAV has acquired Hawthorn Theatrical.
Hawthorn, now a wholly-owned subsidiary of PSAV, will continue to operate under the Hawthorn brand, with MD Martin Hawthorn and his senior team leading the UK-based company.
Mike McIlwain, president and CEO for PSAV, said: “Martin and his team have built a remarkable business, and I’m excited to welcome them all into the PSAV family. I look forward to the opportunity to introduce their customers to the global reach of PSAV.”
Martin Hawthorn added: "Hawthorn and PSAV have very similar innovative and passionate cultures focused on delivering truly exceptional experiences for our customers. We are thrilled to be joining forces with the industry leader to be able to offer our clients more services in more places.”
Founded more than 30 years, Hawthorn is an award-win

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UK - A 120-mile charity bike ride from Bath to the PLASA Show in London has so far raised over £3,500 towards a charity aimed at improving mental health in the industry.
The team of three cyclists, comprising Andy Lenthall of the Production Services Association (PSA); John McEvoy of PRG and Dan Page of DiGiGrid (who had just returned from a 1,000 mile ride from John O’Groats to Land’s End) completed the journey in 7 hours, to join industry colleagues at the annual trade show.
The ride was organised as part of an ongoing collaboration between the PSA and PLASA, which aims to tackle the issue of mental health in the entertainment industry and encourages companies to take an active lead by offering Mental Health First Aid training - equipping staff with the skills required to identify and support colleagues suffering with mental health problems. The money rai

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USA - The 36th edition of the MTV Video Music Awards was broadcast live from the Forum in Inglewood, California. While Kendrick Lamar, Bruno Mars and The Weeknd were among the nominees for Video of The Year (Lamar picking up the main award), the show itself featured performances from other members of pop royalty, including Miley Cyrus, Ed Sheeran, Fifth Harmony, Lorde, Shawn Mendes and DNCE.
Within the vast creative stage set, designed by Stufish’s Ric Lipson, GLP fixtures had a major role to play, with 194 of their new JDC1 hybrid strobes being deployed by 22 Degrees’ LD Bob Barnhart, and supplied by PRG. These had a huge presence across the set - distributed among the overhead canopies, the two layers of outer rings, in the back of the arena (as eye candy in camera backgrounds) and on the overhead main stage area.
The designer was first exposed to GLP’s versati

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USA - High End Systems resumed exclusive distribution for its HOG4 HedgeHog console products from 1 October. Customers can now purchase HedgeHog 4 products directly from authorized High End Systems dealers and distributors, and the company retains the single point of initial distribution for the entire console line.
HedgeHog consoles are small but pack a serious punch. Built for travel (even on a plane), HedgeHogs are compact and lightweight - perfect for new users and smaller venues. School theaters, nightclubs, corporate events, medium-scale rental events and Houses of Worship are the HedgeHog 4's natural habitat. HedgeHog 4 consoles share the same programming layout and capability as their larger brothers, and can happily load show files from any console in the range.
In the coming months, High End Systems will be introducing a new series of console training videos.

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UK - A bespoke 'dimmer world' dolly system using three Avolites ART2000 dimmer racks is proving the right solution for the ongoing UK and international tour of the National Theatre's multi-award-winning production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.
Providing the touring production with a reliable dimming, power distribution, hoist and pyrotechnical control system is a unique 'dimmer world' system designed by the tour's production electrician, Chris Mence. British rental experts, Hawthorn, supplied the three Avolites ART2000 dimmer racks that made-up part of Mence's dimmer system alongside their provision of the tour's entire lighting element.
"The 'dimmer world' system enables us to roll in the entire lighting control and mains distribution package in one hit," says Mence. "It's a plug-and-play solution with the Avolites ART2000 racks provid

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UK - Scotland’s foremost celebration of cultural diversity, The Edinburgh Mela, brought the curtain down on Edinburgh’s festival season last month. The sound for this multi-cultural extravaganza was designed by Live Systems, who used an Adamson S10 line array loudspeaker system. The company supplied all of the technical equipment for the Edinburgh Mela 2017.
Founded in 1995 to showcase the talents of Edinburgh’s ethnic minorities, Edinburgh Mela has now grown to regularly attract thousands of people to its extraordinary range of theatre, dance, music and art.
Taking its name from the Sanskrit word for 'gathering' or 'to meet', Mela has come to represent the widest reaches of the Edinburgh festivals, attracting the most exciting and colourful acts from southern Asia, as modern Scotland's diverse mix of heritage and culture is celebrated in style.

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USA - California production company Stage-Tech again dipped into its extensive inventory of Elation Professional lighting gear to deliver an impactful lighting package for the Hard and Pink stages at this year’s Hard Summer Music Festival. With a venue change somewhat late in the scheduling – a move from the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana to the more scenic environs of the Glen Helen Amphitheater in San Bernardino – Stage-Tech had to be both flexible and resourceful, a challenge they met with the help of adaptable Elation lighting.
Held 5-6 August, the popular rave event celebrated its 10 year anniversary in style by paying homage to some of the artists who have filled the line-up over the past decade, including top acts Snoop Dogg, Bassnectar, DJ Snake, Zeds Dead and Justice.
Stage-Tech has been involved with Hard Summer for the last eight years a

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UK - Following positive reviews and sell-out shows, the Watermill Theatre’s production of Crazy for You has hit the road for a national tour. Working with producers Jamie Wilson, Gavin Kalin and the Watermill Theatre, full service technical production company Hawthorn is supplying lighting equipment for the highly-anticipated show.
The high-energy musical stars Strictly Come Dancing winners Tom Chambers and Caroline Flack as Bobby Child and Irene Roth. Crazy For You is billed as the ultimate feel-good musical with a score from the Gershwin brothers’ songbook.
The lighting designer for the tour is award-winning Howard Hudson, with Hawthorn supplying lighting equipment to his specification. To create the look and feel he was after, Hudson drew on a mixture of Martin MAC Viper Profile and Performance, GLP Impression 90 RGB and Claypaky Sharpy Was

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Italy - Outline GTO PA system was used during the performance of electro-funk superstars Jamiroquai at the Firenze Summer Festival held in Florence's Cascine Park.
A year after its successful deployment at a similarly memorable Florence concert by Sting, Outline’s GTO systems was once more centre stage, but with a totally different music genre.
Outline product specialist Vincent ‘Vinnie’ Perreux explained: “The PA was designed by Outline and Tuscan rental firm Emporio On Stage, based on the predictions of Outline’s Open Array 3D software.”
Angelo Catoni, owner of Emporio On Stage, added, “I’d worked with Jamiroquai FOH engineer Rick Pope in the past, so knew what he’d want for the band as far as the PA was concerned and in fact our design met with all-round satisfaction right from the paperwork stage. The enclosures respond really well

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UK - Held at “a secret location in Market Harborough' on August Bank Holiday Weekend, the eclectic Shambala Festival featured 200 acts across a dozen or so stages of music programming, plus a roller disco, karaoke, contemporary circus performances and lots more.
Promoters, Bristol based Kembe Events, now have the formula down to a fine art, as do their technical service providers (and Martin Audio partners), Stage Audio Services (SAS), who have been involved with the event for the past dozen or so years.
Their MD Kevin Mobberley says the fact that they have just enjoyed their biggest summer ever is due in no small part to their investment in Martin Audio’s premium MLA Compact PA. “In fact, having now added MLA to our hire fleet we were able to give [the promoters] a choice between this and our other front line system; fortunately, they picked MLA which was great

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Europe - Robert Juliat Lancelot and Victor followspots have been specified for the tours of Adele and Phil Collins by Woodroffe Bassett Design lighting designers Patrick Woodroffe and Roland Greil.
Roland Greil, associate lighting designer, lighting director and programmer for all three tours, said:
“The designs for Adele’s arena tour in 2016, for which Adam Bassett was the associate lighting designer, and her stadium tour in 2017 were completely different from each other. The former was based upon a very symmetrical lighting rig that was all about creating a good-looking picture frame with Adele as the centre of attention in the middle. We kept the colours muted with 80% of the lighting being different shades of white, with a few shades of blue and very little else.”
He continued: “For the indoor arena tour we used two Robert Juliat Victor 1800W follows

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Austria Luminaires from SGM Light played an important role in this year’s design of the floating stage in Bregenz.
In 2017 and 2018, the opera Carmen will be performed at the venue. Markus Holdermann, deputy head of the lighting department, relied on SGM luminaires.
He said: "In addition to 16 G-Profiles, we deploy 14 P-5 and two Q-7. The products are ideal for use on our sea stage. Their weather-resistance and advanced technology make them the first choice for me to implement in the lighting concept.” 
The production is running for two years “due to the immense amount of work we put into the stage designs” as Holdermann explained.
For Carmen, Holdermann was not only responsible for the lighting but also the entire multimedia. “In addition to the light concept for this production, it was also necessary to implement the video desig

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Belgium - The Belgium-based percussive entertainment group Drumspirit has added a more theatrical feeling to its current series of Hexahedron shows featuring Milk Inc. drummer Michael Schack and Netsky by using a Bart Rogge lightshow that features 12 Maverick MK2 Spot and 48 Rogue R2 Wash moving lights from Chauvet Professional.
“Given the genre-defying performances of Drumspirit, to bring a theatrical feeling to the Hexahedron shows was no easy feat,” said Rogge. “The versatile Maverick and Rogue fixtures, however, proved to be essential elements in the implementation of my theatrical lighting concept.”
Both the Maverick and Rogue fixtures were positioned above, behind and to the sides of the stage for a variety of visual purposes. Thanks to the Maverick’s generous selection of effects such as rotating slot and lock gobo wheels, a three-facet prism and 13°

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USA - When electronic music producer Flume returned to Red Rocks in July, a large complement of Claypaky Sharpys and Sharpy Washes helped the Grammy winner light up the iconic Colorado amphitheatre.
Brown Note Productions provided the equipment, while lighting designer Stu Dingley was charged with creating the design.
Dingley used 46 Sharpys for Red Rocks, positioning 16 Sharpys on the floor in two horizontal lines at offset heights backing the artist, while 30 more were mounted overhead and kept in reserve for heavier electronic moments in the show.
The LD also used 36 Sharpy washes, deploying four of them as side key lights and 32 overhead. While the floor package at Red Rocks was the same as that on Flume’s ongoing American tour, the overhead fixtures are only used for headline shows.
He explained: “A large part of the design used spots and coloure

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UK - The Queensferry Crossing, the world's longest triple-towered cable-stayed bridge, was illuminated by 60 x Robe BMFL Wash Beams during the crossing’s opening ceremony in September. 
The lighting scheme, which marked the opening of the 2,700m-wide crossing, was designed by event production company JMP Productions, specified and supplied by Edinburgh rental and production specialists Black Light. Their project manager Thomas Ramage worked closely with Jon Pugh from JMP and contacts from Speakeasy and Transport Scotland.  
“Given the throw distance, we needed the sheer power, intensity and punch of the BMFL coupled with the precision focussing potential of the Wash Beam shutters so we could concentrate light exactly where it was needed with minimal spillage,” explained Thomas.  
The 60 x BMFL WashBeams were positioned equidistantly along the central r

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China - Star Events introduced a 22m Orbit and two V-towers to the Chinese market in September, providing the main stage and support structures at Concrete & Grass, a two-day music festival in Shanghai.

Star has supplied the event, at Shanghai Rugby Club, for the last three years from its depot in the city and organiser Split Works moved the company to the Main Stage after its 17m Orbit roof, Stage 2, was the only performance space to withstand torrential rain in 2016.

Gavin Scott, Star Events’ special projects manager, used an 80-ton crane and a six strong crew to build the bigger stage, a significant saving in time and resources compared to the local system it replaced.

Jo Xie, operations director at Star Events China, comments: “It is still very rare to see cranes building stages in China. Most are based on scaffold tower
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