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The Netherlands - While large multiplex cinema chains compete on quantity, smaller independent venues are finding a new market by specialising in quality. An example is RSB Cinemas, a Dutch company that has recently opened its second venue where cinemagoers can enjoy a new level of quality and personal service. An Alcons audio system and laser projection in each room mean they enjoy a uniformly excellent movie experience.
Located in Veldhoven, just a few kilometres from the centre of Eindhoven, each of the new-build Cinema Gold’s four rooms features large, comfortable chairs with tables, at seat luxury snacks and drinks - ordered via each seat’s service button at any time - and spectacular quality movies, thanks to Alcons pro-ribbon 7.1 channel surround sound systems and Barco flagship laser cinema projectors.
"We are all about giving our guests a quality experienc

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USA - When fans of American singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw arrive at a show of his, they can anticipate the Grammy-nominated artist to play all his hits, albeit with one notable modification: a pared down band.
Bandit Lites provided the lighting package for the production, and while previous tours elicited more of a rock show feel, the Gavin DeGraw Tour utilises a three-piece band to give a much more stripped back, intimate feel.
“We wanted a classic and intimate look to fit this show,” said production manager Mitch Vanhoose. “Also, going into smaller venues, we wanted to keep it somewhat scalable. What we ended up with is a simple yet elegant look.”
Bandit Lites supplied Chauvet Rogue RH1 Hybrids, Chauvet Freedom Par Quad 4 fixtures, Color Kinetics Blaze 72 along with Portman P1 Retro Lamps and a Whole Hog 4 for control. The recently acquired Portman P1
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Germany - Beer, food, folk music and a wide variety of other forms of entertainment are a perfect recipe for a good time. The Licher Wiesnfest Beer Festival has been following this formula successfully since 2009. While Munich’s Oktoberfest is Germany’s most internationally famous beer festival export, this summer event, which takes place near Frankfurt am Main, has been gaining traction since its inception, thanks to its beer and varied entertainment programme.
Wanting to give Licher Wiesnfest’s main stage a visual look worthy of a much larger festival main stage, local production specialists Flashlight Veranstaltungstechnik supplied light operator Björn Göbel and lighting technician and LD Benjamin Graff with 14 Chauvet DJ Intimidator Hybrid 140SR fixtures, which they skilfully deployed to create some impressive looks.
By positioning eight Intimidator units

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The Netherlands - The Analogues is an extraordinary band with an ambitious mission. The aim is to recreate, live, the last six studio albums of The Beatles using the same instruments, amplifiers, and arrangements, complete with live strings and horns.
The band has tracked down and restored period instruments from all over the world, such as a rare Lowrey Heritage Deluxe Organ, as used on the introduction to Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. To date, the band has conquered Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour, and will start touring The White Album from January 2018.
Remko Luijten, Front of House Engineer for The Analogues, has been working with the band for two years already, and Ger Arts, monitor engineer, has recently joined the tour. Because of the extreme demands of this project, both engineers have selected SSL Live L500

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Brazil - One of Brazil’s most renowned country folk bands, Guilherme and Santiago, has begun a new tour of South America travelling with a dLive S Class system at FOH with a GLD mixer on monitors from Allen & Heath.
Formed 20 years ago, the band has released 17 albums, five DVDs, and has sold over a million records. The latest tour commenced in São Paulo, at the Villa Country venue.
Provided by PA company, Torau Som e Luz, the FOH dLive system comprises a S7000 Surface with DM64 MixRack, whilst the monitor mixer is a GLD-80.
“We chose dLive for FOH due to its precise dynamics,” explains FOH engineer Valmar Fernandes. “The audio quality of dLive is second to none.”
“GLD is the perfect choice for monitors,” continues monitor engineer, Claudinei Monteiro. “The compact size of the mixer make it very practical for touring. GLD manages a tota

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Hungary - The Volt and Balaton Sound Festivals are part of a series of major festivals in Hungary, held over the summer.
Both have been serviced for a number of years by Capital Sound, and all continue to feature Martin Audio’s premium loudspeaker systems on main stages.
Volt Festival is a massive multi-genre event set in Sopron over five days, with over 100,000 music-lovers attending the celebrations year on year. Known for attracting diverse and talented headliners over 25 years, its huge popularity has resulted in a massive European following.
This year saw Linkin Park, Martin Garrix, Imagine Dragons, Ellie Goulding, Jesse Glynne, The Cult, Years and Years, Pendulum and Paramore appearing over the five days.
As for Balaton Sound, this takes place on the shores of Lake Balaton, the largest in Central Europe, creating a beach party vibe 200 miles from t

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UK - Formed in 2013 in Brighton on the UK south coast, Black Peaks is a four-piece rock band that is going places. Their debut album Statues has been described by The Independent as ‘an exceptional combination of alternative rock, heavy metallic riffs, prog infused concepts and subtle post-rock flourishes that all interweave to create an extremely accomplished debut’ and they have been championed by both Radio 1’s Daniel P Carter and Zane Lowe. Having started out, as most fledgling bands do, with an unrefined mix of microphones, adding Sennheiser to their inventory has made a world of difference.
“We were originally an instrumental three-piece, which was me, Andrew Gosden on bass and Liam Kearley on drums,” explains guitarist Joe Gosney. “We quickly got Will Gardner (vocals) involved and from there our music really started to take shape. We spent 2

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Germany - The 1000th edition of Germany’s hugely popular children’s TV show 1, 2 oder 3 aired in July, and Green Hippo and mo2 design helped ensure it looked suitably impressive. Based on the original US version, which was called Runaround, those in the UK may be familiar with the UK show, which went out in the 70s and 80s under that same original US title. The success of the German show has outstripped that of any of its ‘siblings’ seeing it become a mainstay of German childhood TV watching.
mo2 design produced the historic episode, and to help ensure that the visuals went perfectly to plan, Green Hippo delivered special training to the German lighting and design company. Cologne-based mo2 design has extensive experience working with Media Servers – it was the first lighting designer to widely use them in German television – and has recently focuse

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World - Canadian singer-songwriter Shawn Mendes shot to fame via a clip he posted to Vine in 2014 and has quickly garnered pop royalty status with a social media fan following of millions. At the pinnacle of his career playing sold-out arenas around the world, Shawn is currently embarking on his Illuminate world tour – and French manufacturer and provider of lighting balloons for the event industry, Airstar, is helping to set the stage with its Pendulair LED product.
The llluminate tour comprises 61 dates in total touching every continent, with Shawn playing some of the world’s biggest music venues. Named after his current platinum-selling second studio album, the show features a set built around a 5m wide Airstar Pendulair LED lighting balloon - known as the ‘Orb’. Providing the main source of the light for fans as they walk into the venue, in an off-b

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South Africa - Indian Independence Day, holds a special meaning for the people of Lenasia Township. It was here in the early 20th century that a young Mahatma Gandhi staged a famous protest at the local railway station to advance the cause of civil rights for South Africa’s Indian population. Later, when he returned to India, Gandhi would employ the idea of non-violent civil disobedience that he had honed in South Africa to win independence for his native country, and in the process, change the world.
This year, as India celebrated the 70th anniversary of its independence, Lenasia hosted an array of events to mark the occasion. Among the most moving and colourful was Celebrating India at the township’s Patidar Hall, which featured a performance by the Kashvita Music and Dance Academy. Creating a bright and upbeat background for the spirited performances on stage w

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UK - His aviator shades, curly mop and beard may appear to be cryogenically frozen in time but the renaissance of Jeff Lynne and his Electric Light Orchestra continues to move ever forward in popularity and – with assistance from Stageco – sheer physical size, as witnessed by 70,000 ecstatic fans at Wembley Stadium on 24 June.
Supported by The Shires and Keane’s Tom Chaplin, Lynne led his latest ELO incarnation through a two-hour set rammed with highlights from his vast catalogue of self-penned hits, including Mr. Blue Sky, Livin’ Thing, Evil Womanand Shine A Little Love, while Handle With Care served as a reminder of his brief but perfect career as a Traveling Wilbury.
The big talking point of the night, however, was the breathtaking, 16.5-tonne spaceship hovering above the band that evoked memories of ELO’s celebrated

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USA - Foreigner recently released Forty Hits from Forty Years with an accompanying 40th Anniversary Tour appropriately featuring an old-school lighting design by Dan Lastovka using Elation Arena Par Zoom LED wash lights supplied by See Factor.
Used to create a 70’s rock par can look but with the benefits of a modern intelligent luminaire are 108 Arena Par Zoom fixtures. Lastovka comments: “When I was first playing around with ideas for Foreigner’s 40th Anniversary Tour, I wanted to centre the design around a big par can rig, certainly not the largest that has ever been out, but bigger than has been seen in 10 or more years, and maybe a different look to modern audiences. In the end, whimsy yielded to practicality and a richer feature set, so the hunt for a par can analogue began.”
Lighting vendor on the tour is See Factor, who, working with Elation rep

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UK - Lighting and visuals designer Andy Hurst wanted to make a big impact for Chase & Status acclaimed Saturday night headliner set at the 2017 Lovebox festival in London’s Victoria Park - so he designed an epic specials package which was supplied by HSL, together with crew – which was installed under the event’s production ‘top rig’.
The ‘extras’ included 194 x SGM Q-7 LED flood / strobes, used highly effectively for the onslaught that you expect at a Chase & Status gig as well as super-bright floods and audience blinders.
The Q-7s were rigged so they effectively worked together in linear strips, wrapping around the back and sides of the stage, the PA wings and the portrait format IMAG side screens, also integrating these screens into the performance space.
Andy loves creative challenges and is known for his fresh approach. “I wanted th

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Hungary - Allen & Heath’s dLive S Class mixing system recently managed the gala event for the FINA World Aquatic Championships 2017, held at the prestigious Opera House in Budapest.
Hosted in Hungary in 2017, the FINA World Championships take place every two years in different locations. The Championships are attended by international athletes in swimming, diving, high diving, open water swimming, synchronized swimming, and water polo. Staged at the end of the competition, the gala comprised performances from a symphony orchestra with a choir and opera soloists, alongside the FINA Awards Ceremony.
Local PA company, AV Advice Ltd., managed technical requirements for the event, supplying the dLive system, which comprised a S7000 Surface equipped with Dante and Waves interface cards, a DM64 MixRack, and two DX32 expander racks with redundant connections to the MixRa

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Germany - The annual DPWK Deutscher Preis für Wirtschaftskommunikation (German Prize for Business Communication) gala award presentation took place recently in the casual surroundings of Berlin’s Columbiahalle rock venue (replacing the usual formal ‘black tie’ event).
Known as Der Goldene Funke, the event was expertly lit by locally based lighting designer, Björn Hermann, working in conjunction with phase7 performing.arts, with whom he shares a studio. German lighting manufacturer GLP provided many of the creative tools, including 24 x GT1, 14 x impression X4 and 16 x impression X4 L.
Hermann says he believes it is important to support the City’s institutions, particularly at student level, and GLP were also happy to lend their sponsorship.
Explaining his conceptual mission, the designer states, “It was important to create an ‘Oscar’ type feeling

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Hungary - July saw the FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation) World Championships for aquatic sports take place at the Danube Arena in the Hungarian capital of Budapest. Hungarian sales and rental company Chromasound was tasked with providing a complete audio system for the games and its subsequent events, with a DiGiCo SD10 chosen to provide audio control.
“FINA was responsible for the entire AV installation for the event and they wanted a redundant, reliable, high-end system that could also be used for various events after the games,” explains Imre Makkay, Chromasound’s sales director, who was in charge of system design. “As well as DiGiCo, we are also suppliers of Meyer Sound loudspeaker systems, so it was obvious that we could provide them with the correct overall solution.”
For the main venue, Imre chose the SD10 because he wanted to supply a con

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Belgium - Tomorrowland is one of the world’s highest profile electronic music festivals, gathering over 400.000 people at the main site in Belgium, and connecting an additional 70.000 people at multiple remote venues through the UNITE event. UNITE are events organised in different countries and connected via a live satellite broadcast with Tomorrowland Belgium.
This year UNITE shared three hours of live HD video broadcast feeds featuring performances from the main stage in Belgium, with remote live parties in Germany, Malta, Dubai, Israel, South Korea and Lebanon. At each location grandMA2 consoles were in control. In Belgium 13 x grandMA2 full-size, eight grandMA2 light, one grandMA2 ultra-light, two grandMA2 fader wing, two MA onPC command wing and one MA onPC fader wing were used.
Up until 9pm Belgium time, every party had their own DJ performances. Starting at 9p

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Brazil - Rental company LPL supplied over 150 Robe moving lights including BMFL WashBeams to the 2017 League of Legends Mid-Season Invitationals (MSI) competition staged in the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janiero. (formally the Rio Olympic Arena)
Produced by LoL developers Riot Games, professional regional champions from Asia, North America and Europe met in Brazil and battled ‘live’ to win large numbers of points counting towards the 2017 World Championship title for this popular e-sport phenomena.
The 15-day Group / Knockout games and their Finals in Rio was one of two LoL MSI events hosted in Brazil that featured five team players per game and an eye-catching production including giant LED screens, dramatic lighting and lots of audience interaction, together with colourful and vibrant opening and closing ceremonies, explained LPL’s Caio Bertti, who project manage

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USA - Earlier this month, the Lollapalooza Festival rocked Chicago at Grant Park with four days of music and fun. Supplied through LD Systems, High End Systems SolaSpot 1000s helped augment the visuals on the Pepsi Grove and Lakeshore Stages.
LD Systems’ Nathan Brittain served as lead programmer on the Pepsi Stage, joined by Pepsi Grove lead tech Wade Henry, while the Lakeshore Stage was manned by lead programmer Lance Williamson and lead tech William Diven.
Brittain commented: “We recently purchased SolaSpot 1000’s to fill a need in our inventory for a bright midrange hard edge fixture. Being that the stages we were providing for were medium size roofs, the SolaSpot 1000 was a perfect match. Their size, weight, and power consumption fit with our needs for this show.
“We provided two identical rigs for the two stages, and the SolaSpots were placed on the

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Poland - Nexo systems, in the hands of rental company POGO Art, have played a central role at the World Games in Poland, bringing sound reinforcement to 24 venues in the city of Wroclaw.
Officially called the X World Games, this massive event is the largest competitive sporting festival after the Olympics. Nearly ¼ million people gathered in Wroclaw to watch 3200 athletes from 111 countries in 31 sports which are not contested in the Olympic Games. Featuring powerlifting, karate, squash, water skiing, billiards, to name a few, the 2017 programme encompassed more than 200 events.
Wroclaw-based rental company POGO Art was responsible for providing sound reinforcement to all 24 host venues, which was, according to owner Sławek Pogorzała, “a logistical and technical challenge, requiring a tremendous amount of equipment”.
With the support of Lauda-Audio, the Ne

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Austria - Gracing the beautiful and imposing open-air stage of Austria’s St. Margarethen Quarry this summer is one of Verdi's most popular operas, Rigoletto. The scope and scale of the production was readily matched by two TiMax SoundHub spatial audio processors specified by sound designer, Volker Werner, to meet some interesting and unique challenges.
St Margarethen Quarry is Europe’s largest natural stage: 65m wide and 25m deep, it is set in 7,000sq.m, with an audience capacity of 4,700. For Werner, the choice of TiMax was essential: “One reason is to have the possibility to achieve accurate localisation of the singers for as many listeners as possible. Another reason; the stage is a huge 100-ton steel structure, the whole of which is 3D-mapped and projected on with 16 high-power projectors. Due to this open design there are very few possibilities to hide larg

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UK - The Batley and Spen Youth Theatre Company was recently set up to celebrate and pay tribute to the life of the late Jo Cox, MP for the constituency. Its aim was to create a lasting legacy in the town which will benefit young people for many years to come. Its inaugural project was a three-week event led by a West End creative team which included a performance of Jo’s favourite musical Les Misérables</>, using an entire local cast. In support of the project, White Light provided the lighting equipment.
The project was entitled Hear the People Sing and celebrated the values that Jo stood for: togetherness, collaboration, comradeship and equality. The performances of Les Misérables were made possible by Cameron Mackintosh generously granting the rights for free. The creative team included renowned director Nick Evans, producer Donna Munday, musica

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South Korea - Located in the city of Gangneung on the east coast of South Korea, Gangneung Ice Arena is a new indoor venue which has been built for world figure skating and short track speed skating events in 2018 and as a permanent legacy facility for local recreational use.
The Gangneung Ice Arena has a seating capacity of 12,000 and houses two 60m x 30m ice rinks, for competition and training respectively. With four floors above ground and two underground, the arena has been designed using an environmentally-friendly ice cooling system.
The sound system for the Gangneung Ice Arena was designed and supplied by Inter-M Corporation, assisted by Desco Coon for the installation. The Inter-M design was accurately calculated for the required intelligibility, sound levels and coverage and was based around Community R Series loudspeakers.
For the main competition rink,

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UK - VME provided full production (including their flagship Martin Audio MLA Compact PA) for the first ever Cotton Clouds, Saddleworth’s pioneering boutique music festival.
Held at Saddleworth Cricket Club in Oldham, and surrounded by the picturesque Pennine hills, it sold out all 3,000 tickets well in advance, setting it on the road to an inevitable success. According to VME, there seemed no better time to introduce the Oldham faithful to the precision and accuracy of Martin Audio MLA.
“Being from the local area I knew that there would be issues with noise propagation,” stated Oliver Fallon, technical manager of Cotton Clouds and VME sound engineer. “During my time at VME I have worked with the Martin Audio MLA many times - therefore I knew there was no better system to do the job as it has got us out of some sticky situations in the past.”
Chris Pearc
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  4. PRG joins Sir Elton John summer tour
  5. Ashly in the mix for Pueblo’s DeHerrera
  6. ProPlex Devices rock solid on British TV
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