South Africa - Production company Rapid Blue produced the eighth season of SA’s Got Talent, with event technical specialists Blond Productions teaming up with production design company Visual Frontier for the first time.
“We decided to join together to do this, using the strength of Blond Productions’ technical delivery and the strength of my design capability for television,” explained Joshua Cutts, lighting designer from Visual Frontier. “We thought if we joined forces it would be a good exercise and in the end, it turned out to be very successful.”
There were two portions to SA’s Got Talent namely the auditions hosted at the UJ Theatre in Johannesburg and at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town, and then the main televised competition held at The Soweto Theatre in Johannesburg.
Mauritz Neethling, general manager from Blond Productions,

UK - Northampton-based full-service production company Stage Right Productions has recently extended their already considerable dBTechnologies inventory with the addition of the VIO 2-way line array system from dBTech’s UK distributor CUK Audio.
Part of the system is already deployed in the Deco theatre in Northampton for the annual star-studded pantomime. This year’s production of Peter Pan features Coronation Street’s Nick Cochrane as Smee, The Voice finalist Lydia Lucy as Wendy, Grange Hill’s Colin Ridgewell as Captain Hook, West End actor Chris Wills as Peter Pan, and Northampton’s own Naomi Wilkins as Tiger Lily.
Stage Right operates in a wide range of sectors in the event industry, from outdoor concerts, to corporate events to theatre shows. The company has been investing in dBTechnologies products for over 10 years and held

South Africa - Audio engineer Emily Adams, was working on Pieter Toerien’s previous production, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, when asked to do Evita, the original West End and Broadway production of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical which premiered at Montecasino Teatro in Johannesburg and recently moved to the Cape Town’s Artscape Theatre. It is to be followed by an Asia tour in 2018. Emily is operating the show on a DiGiCo SD7T.
It has been an considerable experience for Emily. “It’s my first production as head of department on a show of this scale. I started as a RF technician and I have done many shows at the Teatro Theatre, but I’ve always been the deputy head of sound and only mixed the occasional show, not actually running the show. This has been really challenging and I’ve loved every second of it so far.”

Thailand - Fuzion Far East (FFE) has installed Nexo’s new Geo M10 mid-size line array at the Brighton College Bangkok.

A subsidiary of Brighton College UK, the newly-opened Bangkok college is the result of a collaborative partnership with the Ocean Group, a Thai company, led by the Assakul family. The school is housed on a 20-acre campus, and includes a purpose-built auditorium with facilities for music, art, dance and drama.

High ceilings and glass walkways characterise the Performance Arts Centre, a key part of the campus which houses a 620-seat theatre, dance studios, rooms for musical instruction and practice, art and design rooms, Mac suites and a traditional photography darkroom.

FFE recommended the newly-released Geo M10 line array for the PAC auditorium, designing a low-profile flown system which uses L/R arrays each with three Geo

China - Taiwanese artist Huang Guolun recently brought his No Impossible show to China’s Beijing National Stadium.
Also known as the Bird’s Nest, it was fitted with an expansive system comprised of Adamson’s E-Series and S-Series loudspeakers that ensured sound coverage for every seat.
Yongjun ‘Park’ Li of Le’er Culture & Art Studio was the system designer and FOH engineer for the performance and explains that his choice to deploy Adamson for both the main house system and the delays covering the upper bowl was based on a few key factors.
“Adamson’s E-Series is very widely applicable, from studios and theatres to major indoor and outdoor stadiums, and I’ve found it excels in any application,” shares Li. “The E-Series has an incredible throw, with smooth highs, powerful mids, and low end that seemingly has infinite power. The syst

Poland - To take advantage of new business opportunities in Poland, MultiDyne Fiber Optic Solutions has appointed Twenty4Seven as its exclusive in-country distribution and systems integration partner. Twenty4Seven will exclusively specify MultiDyne fibre optic solutions into its broadcast and commercial AV integration projects throughout the country.
Twenty4Seven specialises in customised solutions and services for broadcast and production systems in TV and radio facilities, houses of worship and live event venues, among other customers.
Twenty4Seven partner Jakub Antoszewski says: “Poland is a very technologically-advanced country, and the broadcast and commercial AV markets here are focused on top quality products and services,” said Antoszewski. “Twenty4Seven was founded by and remains comprised of experts from the broadcast industry, and we thoroughly unders

USA - Audinate, developer of Dante media networking technology, has announced the availability of Dante IP Core, a soft IP solution for audio manufacturers. It allows OEMs working with FPGA-based designs to add Dante audio connectivity to AV products at a lower cost and with greater flexibility than ever before.
Development teams can save time, reduce BOM costs and minimize their internal footprint by using a single FPGA to implement both product applications and Dante audio networking, says Audinate. Dante IP Core efficiently runs alongside OEM product applications such as ASRC, audio encryption, and signal processing on a range of Xilinx FPGAs, providing channel counts up to 512x512 with ultra-low latency and sub-microsecond synchronisation.
Dante IP Core reduces the marginal costs of incorporating Dante in FPGA-based products, offering OEMs greater flexibility in a

The Netherlands - At ISE 2018, Atlona will celebrate its 15th anniversary as it continues to bring the best of the AV and IT worlds together. Founded in 2003 by brothers Ilya Khayn and Michael Khain, the company will present an array of products and innovations designed to meet quickly changing customer needs.
Key among these innovations will be the company’s first demonstration of an “All IP Meeting Space,” which will offer a glimpse into Atlona’s complete solutions approach for full campus, multinational corporation, and other enterprise-level AV distribution systems.
“As conventional wired systems fade in favour of more efficient IP-enabled architectures, our customers are looking to invest in more enterprise-based solutions that increase productivity, reduce clutter, and simplify scaling to accommodate growth,” said Ilya Khayn, Atlona co-founder and pre

UAE - Event technical production specialist Maestra’s UEA based operation, delivered rigging, staging, sound, lighting and video / AV for Blend Abu Dhabi, a special event to relaunch the YAS Marina Formula One circuit meeting space.
Attended by event organisers, production companies, suppliers, social influencers, media and other organizations and individuals from across the event spectrum, all with different interests in the world of live events, the pressure was on for Maestra’s team on site, led by project manager Aaron Merchant, to deliver something unique.
They co-ordinated technical production for four different areas, the main conference space, the pit garages, the reception area and entrance and the afterparty staged in the chic, rooftop Luna Lounge.
A stunning sculptural set design for the conference session’s stage was conceived by the YAS

Germany - German rock/indie band Kraftklub recently undertook their third major tour with Martin Audio’s flagship MLA PA, provided by Complete Audio.
The five-piece outfit is a long-term client of the Berlin-based service provider, having embarked on their first tour of duty with MLA back in 2012.
This time around, the band played mostly arena-sized venues ranging between 8,000-14,000 capacity, with a few club gigs (through house systems) thrown in “for fun”.
The standard PA set-up comprised 13 MLA and a single MLD Downfill per side, with either three and four MLX subs flown next to the main hang to add further sub bass to the bleachers and to support the flown out-hangs comprising 12 MLA Compact. A further 12 MLX along the stage apron, stacked in pairs, were designed as a broadside array.
Joint system techs were Benny Franke and Thomas Birnbaum. And

USA - With perseverance, a vision and a good message, a congregation can grow beyond expectation. Such is the case with Life Centre Ministries in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a church that has continued to expand since its formation in 1978 as Word Fellowship. In 1994, it adopted the name Life Centre, attracting exponentially more attendees that, in turn, required a larger location. So, in 1999, the congregation moved into a spacious industrial building, a former AMP Corporation showroom.
Enter Clair Brothers in 2015, whose role in helping to fullfil the Life Centre ‘AMPlification’ can’t be overlooked. At first performing minor upgrades to amplifiers and mixing consoles, Clair Brothers has witnessed the church’s continuous growth and has been there every step of the way, right up to today, where we find Life Centre constructing a new balcony within its AMP space to acc

India - Initiated in 2014 by Yamaha Music India, Teens Rock: The Battle of the Bands is a bold initiative for promoting music playing and performance amongst teenagers. The idea is to provide a platform to teenagers to showcase their talent and interest in music which often goes unnoticed. The fourth edition saw the participation of schools from Delhi, Gurugram, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Indore, Kochi, Bengaluru and Kolkata.
The Grand Finale of the 2017 event took place at DLF Place Saket in New Delhi, with 11 school bands. In front of an audience of 2000+, the MD of Yamaha Music India Hitoshi Mochizuki hosted some accomplished professional musicians as judges – well-known drummer Gino Banks, Subir Malik from Parikarma, and Rahul Ram from Indian Ocean.
Sound systems for the event were provided by Yamaha Music India, with support from the Daedal Prodigy rent

UK - Capital Sound recently extended its digital audio offering for Emeli Sandé’s Long Live The Angels UK arena tour, deploying Sennheiser’s new Digital 6000 Series microphones, along with a DiGiCo SD5 digital mixing console at the monitor position.
Having made the investment in the latest Sennheiser Digital 6000 series, Capital Sound supplied an eight-channel package for Emeli’s vocal microphones on the main and B stage, plus her three backing vocalists.
“The vocal clarity and range throughout the spectrum was incredible,” says Paul Timmins, Capital’s operations and development director. “The vocal was pure and natural, contributing to the overall high-quality audio experience, which was enhanced for her monitor mix by using the SD5.”
Capital chose the DiGiCo SD5 because of its high I/O and buss count, with Emeli’s setup including aroun

USA - German manufacturer of IP audio, video and control infrastructure solutions Lawo is expanding its US operations, adding personnel and opening a new support and logistics hub in Elmsford, New York.
Three times the size and capacity of its previous facility, Lawo’s new hub will serve as warehouse, test facility, training centre and East Coast sales and support office. This new facility complements Lawo’s existing US HQ in New York City, West Coast sales and support office in Los Angeles, and Canadian headquarters in Toronto.
To oversee operations at the new hub, Ricardo Martinez assumes the position of North-American logistics and support coordinator starting 1 December. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in business management and comes to Lawo from his previous post as operations supervisor with Autonomic Controls.
At the same time, Lawo has announced t

UK - Stardraw.com’s line-art library is now reportedly comprising over 100,000 symbols of 34,586 products from 838 manufacturers.
Stardraw’s symbols library has been a work in progress for over 20 years and, since the advent of the Product Request service in 2002, the number of symbols available to subscribing customers has grown massively. Moreover, since the addition of new products into the library is based on user requests, the contents of the library reflect the products in use by the global professional AV industry.
All symbols are generated in-house by Stardraw’s Symbols Department according to an established data specification. This means that regardless of the original data or what the symbols might represent, a qualitative standard is maintained. As a result, any and all symbols used in project documentation work seamlessly with each other, making the d

Europe - Status Quo have hit the road for their latest tour Plugged In - Live and Rockin’, with full technical service provider Hawthorn supplying the lighting equipment for the performances.
Following the death of Rick Parfitt in December last year, the band kicked off this year’s tour with Aquostic performances in Europe before returning to the UK for the electric shows.
Now the band have headed back overseas for the next leg of the tour. Having never taken the Aquostic show to Europe, the decision was made to keep these performances in the original format. The tour will close in Nürnberg, Germany on 21 December 2017.
Working closely with Ewan Cameron, Status Quo’s long-standing lighting designer, the Concert Touring division at Hawthorn drew upon its vast range of hire stock to supply lighting to specification. This includes Martin

India - Harman Professional Solutions recently partnered with Grammy Award-winning artist A.R. Rahman to produce The Sufi Route, India’s first folk, poetry and Sufi music festival.
Harman was the official technology partner of the concert, which was held on 18 November at Qutub Minar in New Delhi and featured a line-up comprising Javed Akhtar, Nooran Sisters, Hans Raj Hans, Mukhtiar Ali, Kamna Prasad Sood, Fouzia & Firoz, Dhruv Sangari and a Whirling Dervish ceremony from Turkey.
The Sufi Route and Harman partnered with The Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation to allow 35 students with hearing loss enjoy the show in support of the organisation’s A Billion Acts for Peace campaign. Students from the Centrum GRO Advanced Skill Training Centre for the Deaf heard the performances using four translators and vibrations from JBL speakers.
“Ha

UK - Martin Audio has announced the availability of GLL loudspeaker measurement data compatible with EASE Focus 3 for many of its point source loudspeakers.
EASE Focus 3 from AFMG Technologies is an acoustic simulation programme for 3D modelling that enables the user to define audience areas, section views, and receiver locations flexibly, while calculating sound coverage and frequency response immediately.
Dan Orton, Martin Audio’s product group manager, comments: “Martin Audio’s runaway success with the likes of CDD series and BlacklineX has accelerated our installation market share, and now that we and our customers have the ability to model our point source boxes in a 3D environment it will help ensure that this trend continues.”
The GLL loudspeaker data compatible with both EASE and EASE Focus is available to download from the Martin Audio website.

UK - Rental company Stage Sound Services (SSS) has recently invested in Sennheiser’s new Digital 6000 microphone system.
SSS chose the system for its sub-hire and its rider / specification friendliness as well as its environmental credentials bolstered by its rechargeable battery.
“We've been working with Sennheiser from the very start of the company, starting out with their wired microphones,” says SSS commercial manager, James Lewis. “A large proportion of our business is professional theatre, from small plays to full-scale musicals and, in recent years, our stock of Sennheiser and Neumann wired microphones has increased dramatically to accommodate these shows. Last year we started to add Sennheiser wireless into our rental stock, with the purchase of 32 channels of its SK 5212 system for the Funny Girl UK tour. Sennheiser is on many specs, so it wasn'

UK - Fox Valley Retail Park in Stocksbridge, north Sheffield has been equipped with a Bose audio solution just a year after its official opening. Property developer Dransfield Properties commissioned long-time Bose pro partner Promotiontime NE to design an audio system for the retail, office and leisure development.
After breaking ground in March 2014, it took just over two years and a £50m investment to transform the 28-acre former steelworks site into a retail and commercial hub for over 18,000 locals.
Fox Valley required an audio system to fill walkways and open pedestrianised areas with both background and foreground sound as well as needing sound-reinforcement in the entertainment areas.
A network of 26 Bose FreeSpace loudspeakers were installed across the site, utilising a mixture of DS 100SE and DS 40SE products for the public retail spaces, and in addit

UK - Doughty dealers Chinnick Theatre Services experienced a ‘light bulb moment’ when they first saw Doughty’s new Studio Rail Articulated Carriage at PLASA, London, realising it was the perfect piece of kit for a job they were working on at Richard Hewish College in Taunton.
“We were approached by Halsall Construction in Bath and asked if we could quote for a lighting grid at the college,” explained Clive Chinnick, “We were sent a photo of the internally wired theatre grid that had been in place previously. However, it was in a classroom setting which made very little sense to us. Then we were sent through the specifications for the project, and one of the requests was for a socket to be placed every 200mm. We realised we needed to visit the college to try and better understand their needs.”
On visiting the college, Clive discovered that the project had

Germany - S.E.A. Vertrieb & Consulting will become the German distributor for Community Professional Loudspeakers from 1 January 2018.
The distributor exclusively markets a portfolio of 20 premium audio brands, offering solutions for recording studios, live events and fixed installations.
Heinz Bouwer, sales manager at S.E.A. Vertrieb & Consulting, comments: “We are delighted to join forces with Community and represent the company’s high-performance products in the German market. Community offers a comprehensive range of audio products with superior sound, excellent manufacturing quality and unique features, making the brand a perfect fit with our existing portfolio of installed sound products. We look forward to further developing Community in our territory and taking advantage of the synergy with more than 12 years of successful cooperation with its siste

USA - Integration company Houlton Audio/Video Applications recently replaced the sound system at the Will Rogers Shrine of the Sun in Colorado Springs, the tomb of philanthropist and entrepreneur Spencer Penrose, who died tragically in a plane crash.
The Shrine plays a measured role in the lives of all the denizens of Colorado Springs – like a traditional church bell, it chimes on the hour and on the 15 minutes in standard Westminster code, in addition to playing clarions at special times and on special days.
Houlton replaced the inefficient 2,500-watt system comprised of e18 amplifiers, 36 1.5-inch compression driven horns, and 36 15-inch loudspeakers that had previously conveyed the Maas-Rowe carillon chime system to the town, with a very efficient 10,000-watt system comprised of a single four-channel Danley DNA 10K4 Pro amplifier and a Danley J3-94 Jericho Horn.

USA - The 18th Annual Latin Grammy Awards is one of the biggest nights in Latin music. Broadcast on the Univision Network, the 2017 show was recently hosted by Jaime Camil and Roselyn Sanchez at the Grand Garden Arena at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.
Since 2005, Univision has tapped Orlando, Florida-based Professional Wireless Systems (PWS) to provide RF coordination and equipment for the live show viewed by 8 million people around the world - and this year was no different.
“RF coordination in Las Vegas is always difficult - coordination for an award show the size and scope of the Latin Grammys is truly a challenge,” explains James Stoffo, lead RF coordinator for the show. “We start weeks in advance, planning everything down to the last channel to ensure the show goes off without a hitch, it was the smoothest Latin Grammys I have ever worked th

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