Events

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UK - Sound Technology, the distributor of Martin by Harman in the UK, is holding a Martin ERA Performance showcase event at the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden on 17 February.
The event will run from 11am to 4pm and will see the complete ERA Performance range on demo.
Sound Technology has also announced the immediate shipping of the Martin ERA 400 Performance CLD. The ERA 400 is the first of the ERA Performance series, announced at LDI in November, to become available, with the remainder of range which consists of the warm white version of the ERA 400, the ERA 600 Performance and ERA 800 Performance - the brightest moving profile fixture in Martin's history - arriving in February.
The 10,000lm ERA 400 Performance CLD features a 300W 6,500K LED light engine, and in common with the entire ERA Performance range, has crisp optics with a flat field, CMY c

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USA - The Long Reach Long Riders and Behind the Scenes will host their annual fundraising raffle at the USITT Conference 2-4 April in Houston.
This year’s raffle will celebrate the 17th edition of the Long Reach Long Riders annual charity motorcycle ride. The Riders, who have raised over half a million dollars for charity in their years of touring, will be riding 20-27 June on the A River Runs Through It tour through four states around the upper Midwest with route highlights in and around the area known as the Driftless.
The Behind the Scenes Boutique will also be open for business during the show featuring an assortment of Behind the Scenes swag and Long Reach Long Rider T-shirts and kazoos.
Tickets for the raffle are $5 each or five for $20 and can be purchased at the Behind the Scenes stand #222 throughout the show. Winning tickets for nine regular pr

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USA - Winners of the ESTA’s Members Choice Awards 2020 were announced on 19 January at the Design Studio stand during the NAMM Show.
The annual awards see ESTA member exhibitors nominate new products and ESTA member attendees voting via an electronic ballot to determine the winners across two categories - Gadget and Equipment.
The winner for the Gadget category is The Light Source for The Mega-Coupler Grounder. In The Equipment category, there was a four-way tie. The winners are: ACT Lighting for the Ayrton Diablo, Applied Electronics for Video Wall Truss, The Light Source for The Gym Light Cage, and TMB for the ProPlex FOH Friend.
(Jim Evans)

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Australia - The Australasian Lighting Industry Association (ALIA) has abandoned plans to celebrate its 20th anniversary, opting instead to raise money for the Australian people and wildlife affected by the recent bushfires.
ALIA has set up the ALIA FireAid Auction, an online auction where gear donated by lighting solutions manufacturers from across the globe will be auctioned online. All money raised will benefit the Australian Red Cross and the RSPCA’s National Bushfire Appeal. Bidding is only open to Australian residents due to shipping costs.
“A big thanks must also go to the Australian distributors who are tasked with getting the gear to the buyer. It couldn’t have been done without them,” says ALIA.
The association is still accepting equipment donations

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UK - Featuring some of the leading names in the industry, Stage Electrics is welcoming over 20 manufactures, to the SS Great Britain, Bristol on Wednesday 29 January, to demonstrate their latest products.
This event offers an opportunity to speak directly to manufacturers, discover the latest products, and network with others in the industry. The three educational seminars are now fully booked but additional spaces may become available on the day on a first-come-first-served basis.
With free entry, this event will run from 2:00pm until 7:00pm with drinks being served from 5:30 pm.
www.stage-electrics.co.uk/about-us/events/showcase-2020/

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USA - Harman Professional Solutions will present two masterclasses at The REACH campus at the John F. Kennedy Centre for Performing Arts in Washington DC on 12 February. The programme is sponsored by JBL Professional and Soundcraft in cooperation with the Kennedy Centre.
FOH engineer Brad ‘fixintogetmixin’ Divens will speak at both events. In addition to currently working as FOH engineer for Enrique Iglesias, he has also engineered for Linkin Park, Garbage, Cyndi Lauper, HIM, Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, Mötley Crüe, Jane's Addiction and more.
During his Building the Mix masterclass, Divens will discuss and demonstrate his approach to putting together a live mix, including technical topics such as the basics of input gain, EQ, compression, plugins and routing, as well as creative concepts regarding the audience and the artist. He will deconstruc

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USA - At the 2020 Parnelli Awards, Bandit Lites founder Michael T. Strickland was presented with the Visionary Lifetime Achievement Award for his pioneering work in the entertainment lighting business. The awards ceremony was held during the NAMM Show at the Anaheim Hilton’s Pacific Ballroom on 17 January.
In a touching tribute to Strickland’s lifetime achievements in founding and growing Bandit Lites, clients and friends Alice Cooper and Shinedown offered video tributes. Later, Shinedown lead vocalist, Brent Smith, stepped on stage to present the award to him, extoling the virtues of Michael as a person above all else. Smith then stated there was one more person who wanted to say a few words.
Singer-songwriter Garth Brooks then shared how he came to be a part of the Bandit Lites family, with Strickland believing in his dream of a concert that would rival the bigge

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The Netherlands - LED display manufacturer Absen, will return to the RAI in Amsterdam next month to present its range of MiniLED products for the fixed installation and rental markets and to introduce new and enhanced products.
Absen will occupy 324sq.m of floor space in Hall 12, representing the company’s largest ever presence at the show.
Absen’s MiniLED are ultra-fine pixel pitch LED panels, incorporating 4-in-1 pixel configuration (IMD) and common cathode technology. Demand for Absen MiniLED products has been very high since the launch of the CR series in 2018, and intensified significantly with last year’s launch of the Aries (AX) series, the market-leading sub-2mm MiniLED rental display, designed to meet the rigorous demands of the rental staging market.
Absen MiniLED now comes as standard in four core product lines: the Aries (AX), Acclaim (A27 Pro)

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South Africa - DWR Distribution is inviting companies and individuals based in Johannesburg to attend an L-Acoustics demo to be held at Pirates Club in Greenside on 5 February.
This will be an open day, and visitors are welcome to visit any time between 11:00 and 15:00, where demonstrations will be held on the hour, every hour. The focus will be on the L-Acoustics Kiva II.

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USA - At NAMM 2020, Adamson Systems Engineering announced a suite of training and education initiatives to take place throughout 2020.
These include a US roadshow; increased delivery of the company’s Applied and Advanced Certification training programmes; and the Winding Roads education series, designed to introduce secondary- and post-secondary school students to the potential career opportunities in pro AV and live production.
The Winding Roads Education Event Series, in partnership with the AVIXA Foundation, will provide students in Toronto, Canada, and the surrounding area with insight into live production, performance, and the music industry. Through the initiative, hundreds of individuals will have the opportunity to see professional AV installations and touring systems, get hands-on with state-of-the-art equipment donated by industry leaders lik

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USA - Newly-launched pro audio company ASI Audio x Sensaphonics has introduced 3DME in-ear monitoring system. The 3D Music Enhancement system combines all-new universal-fit Active Ambient IEMs with a sub-compact bodypack mixer and smartphone app with EQ and limiter, allowing musicians to create “a truly personalized monitoring experience”. 3DME makes its NAMM this week.
3DME stands for ‘three-dimensional music enhancement’, a new approach to in-ears. It starts with ASI’s all-new universal-fit Active Ambient earphones with an embedded binaural microphone system to capture room sound while keeping the ears isolated. The IEMs connect to the sub-compact 3DME mixer, where the ambient audio is added to the monitor mix. But the real key to Music Enhancement is the intuitive ASI Audio app, which is used to set both the limiter and equalization of the audio to the user’s

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South Africa - Astera distributor DWR Distribution will offer clients the first local demos of the lighting company’s full range of products during an open day programme taking place at the end of January.
Astera’s sales and marketing director Sebastian Bückle will carry out the presentations in Cape Town and Johannesburg, whilst DWR’s local product managers Marlene Riley and Jannie de Jager will do so in Durban.
Bückle, who has been a part of the Astera team for more than a decade, will demo the company’s complete range of wireless tubes and spotlights as well as the AsteraApp and wireless DMX that one can use to control the fixtures. He will be at the DWR Cape Town offices on Monday, 27 January and at the Johannesburg offices on 29 January. The local product representatives from DWR will lead an Astera open day in Durban on 31 January.
Duncan Riley o

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UK - The Association of Lighting Designers (ALD) has announced the 2019 recipients of its Awards for Excellence.
The awards celebrate imaginative and creative lighting and video production and offer young designers a chance to showcase their talents and bringing their work to the attention of experienced lighting and video designers and the wider industry.
The event was rebranded for its 2019 edition, with changes to the prizes and the introduction of a new award category, The Fred Foster Award for Production Electrics, created to “balance the recognition of talent demonstrated across the membership profile”.
The Michael Northen Award for Lighting Design was awarded jointly to Lucia Sanchez Roldan from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and Rose Bruford’s Ryan Joseph Stafford.
Roldan’s work was described as “beautiful (…) with strong design, clea

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UK - PLASA and the Music Industries Association (MIA) are set to co-host a free event designed to offer advice and information on the incoming changes to the off-payroll working regulations (known as IR35) and Brexit.
Taking place on 30 January, Get your business ready: IR35 and Brexit will see business and HR experts take to the stage, including Nicky Gleadow, MD of The HR Point, who will detail how the IR35 changes may affect employers and contractors. More speakers will be announced soon, the organisers say.
IR35 is a piece of UK government legislation that aims to determine whether a worker is an employee or contractor, ensuring that the person carrying out the work is paid and protected in the proper manner and that both parties pay the relevant tax. The changes

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USA - At the 2020 NAMM Show in Anaheim, Elation Professional will present new atmospheric effects in its new Magmatic range, as well as the latest lighting control products from Obsidian Control Systems.
Also featured will be the new Elation Smarty, Fuze and Paladin range lighting products.
On display will be the new Smarty MAX, an extreme-output spot/beam/wash hybrid moving head featuring a new Platinum FLEX 400 lamp rated at 480W with up to 4,000 hours of smart lamp life. Combining CMY and variable CTO, this is the world’s first hybrid incorporating a full iris for dynamic beam effects. Compact and lightweight with a large 160mm front aperture lens, its resourceful design package includes four prisms on two planes, dual frosts plus dual gobo wheels and dual track animation.
Also showing is the Fuze SFX, a new concept LED Spot FX fixture designed for a variet

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USA - Eliminator Lighting will use this month’s NAMM Show in Anaheim to showcase five recent additions to its line-up of entertainment lighting and event accessories. These include a powerful simulated water effect, a HEX colour LED par, and a 5-in-1 effect light.
Offering a one-stop lighting solution, Eliminator’s new Furious Five RG packs five distinctly different effects into one compact fixture. Designed for mobile entertainers as well as installers working in bars and clubs with limited space, this unit generates a complete lightshow featuring derby and laser beams, UV and colour washes, as well as strobe effects. At the centre of the fixture is a laser aperture which projects countless diffracted beams generated from two laser diodes (70mW green and 100mW red).
Serving as eye-catching décor for all kinds of special events, the LED BP Tubes 4 Pak is a set of

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USA - BishopSound, the fast-growing Yorkshire-based PA specialist, is making its NAMM debut this year, giving international visitors to the show the chance to meet the owner Andrew Bishop and discuss what promises to be a busy year for his company.
Having recently launched its first passive line array system, and while simultaneously expanding its wide range of affordable PA equipment, this year BishopSound will be introducing a series of new UK-designed and manufactured speakers aimed at the top end of the professional market.
The first of the new models will be a 2x18" high power subwoofer; initially designed to complement the company's new Delta Dual 8" passive line array, the new high-power subwoofer is likely to find many other uses due to its exceptional performance, BishopSound predicts.
Also, to be launched this year this year will be a new three-way en

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UK - The Stage to Studio competition for the best audio mix, hosted by PLASA in association with Sound on Sound and Headliner magazines, ends on Monday, 13 January. Those interested in entering can find out more on the PLASA Show website.
The competition launched in November inviting submissions for the best mix of VC Pines’ Stage to Studio session from PLASA Show 2019. The packed sessions saw a line up of emerging artists perform live, headlined by VC Pines who was recently BBC Radio One’s artist of the week. The sessions were mixed at the show by eminent engineers, with Pines’ recording overseen by Jamie McEvoy (Noel Gallagher, Placebo, the Vaccines.) The raw audio files were then released for the competition.
Audio professiona

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USA - The Live Design International Conference and Tradeshow (LDI) has joined Questex, a global business information company.
Questex states its goal is to create a “world-class information services business by advancing companies who help people live longer, healthier and better lives through the experience economy.”
“This exciting development allows us to provide our audience and exhibitors with even better experiences, professional training, and engagement as Questex is strategically focused on the experience economy,” comments LDI show director, Jessi Cybulski. “LDI remains dedicated to serving and growing the live design community. We don’t anticipate any of our live design/LDI community will experience any changes, except good ones, as we move forward. Expect more information on this soon.”
Paul Miller, CEO, Questex, adds: “The experience ec

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USA - Entertainment technology charity Behind the Scenes has announced that the The Lightpower Collection’s work of famed Rock‘n’Roll photographer and author Neal Preston is returning to the NAMM Show (16-19 January, Anaheim). Neal’s pictures will be displayed in the BTS booth #10747 and will include pictures not previously seen at the show including Mötley Crüe, Kiss, and Bruce Springsteen.
Neal’s books Exhilarated & Exhausted and In the Eye of the Hurricane and posters, including his famous images of Robert Plant and Carlos Santana, will be available for sale. Proceeds will benefit the charity.
Neal will be present in the Behind the Scenes booth to sign books and posters on Thursday, 16 January at 3pm and on Friday, 17 January at 11am and 3pm.
Neal’s archive is regarded as one of the music industry’s most extensive and signif

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USA - Harman Professional Solutions has announced that Brad ‘fixintogetmixin’ Divens will present two masterclasses at the 2020 NAMM show in Anaheim.
In addition to currently working as FOH engineer for Enrique Iglesias, Divens has also worked for Linkin Park, Garbage, Cyndi Lauper, HIM, Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, Mötley Crüe, Jane's Addiction and more.
Divens will speak at two exclusive Masterclass events, presented by JBL and Soundcraft. Both events will take place on Thursday, 16 January 16 in the AES Academy 2020 room on the fourth floor of the Anaheim Hilton and will be hosted by Soundcraft’s live sound product specialist, Tom Der.
During his Building the Mix masterclass, Divens will discuss and demonstrate his approach to putting together a live mix, including technical topics such as the basics of input gain, EQ, compression, plu

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USA - One London-based lighting programmer took home a brand-new MagicQ MQ70 console as he triumphed in ChamSys’ Programmers Competition, which took place during the LDI 2019 tradeshow in Las Vegas.
The contest required programmers to programme a large Chauvet Professional rig for a one to three-minute song of their choice using MagicQ with MagicVis Visualization, with the top three entrants invited to playback their entries live at the trade event.
“We were blown away by his incredible work,” said the panel of judges in a statement announcing that Matt Blake had won the contest.
Chris Kennedy, director of ChamSys, added: “Matt made excellent use of the different fixtures on the lighting rig, created lots of different visual effects some static, some moving and made the most of ChamSys powerful control abilities to create a stunning show. This is all th

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Czech Republic - Over 300 sound industry professionals from 40 countries recently visited Prague for Yamaha’s annual System Designers Conference.
Immersive audio was the theme of this year’s SDC. Prague was an appropriate location, as the city’s long history of opera and classical music has seen many venues built with acoustics in mind. It was in the newest of these - the O2 universum, opened just six weeks earlier - that the conference took place.
Featuring a wide range of conference facilities and a 4,500-seat sports arena, the O2 universum staged demonstration immersive sound systems in both the largest conference room and the arena, as well as comparing them to a large format Nexo L-R line array system flown in the arena.
SDC 2019 featured a wide range of different presentations and demonstrations. These included the Prague Music String Quartet demonst

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UK - White Light and ELP Broadcast & Events (ELP B&E) have announced a strategic partnership.
ELP B&E will continue the full service broadcast and events wet hire business it currently operates. The partnership commences on 6 January 2020 and reverses the position announced in November 2019 of the cessation of ELP B&E at the end of 2019. It will pave the way for the acquisition of ELP’s lighting rental business by WL during 2020.
ELP B&E staff and premises in Manchester will be retained, along with the equipment stock. Additional staff, equipment and operational resources will be added from within the WL organisation, bolstering ELP B&E’s strength and ability to meet client needs. During the early months, fulfilment and despatch will continue from ELP’s base at Cardington Studios with a transfer to WL’s Wimbledon premises taking place la
  1. Banner year for High End Systems at LDI
  2. LDI2019 attracts record numbers
  3. L-Acoustics triumphs at Trifesta
  4. Bose completes installed sound EMEA tour
  5. Stage Electrics to host 2020 showcase
  6. VMS Live opens London office, adds staff
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