Brit Awards - Lewis Capaldi and Dave lead the Brit Awards shortlists for 2020, with four nominations each. Stormzy, Mabel, Michael Kiwanuka, Charli XCX, Harry Styles and Coldplay are also among the acts to receive a nod for this year's awards, which will be the 40th major Brits show.
Both Scottish singer-songwriter Capaldi and London rapper Dave are up for new artist of the year, and despite their relative infancy in the industry are also up for the big awards of best male solo artist, best album and song of the year, thanks to chart-topping debuts in the past 12 months.
The past 12 months have been very successful for both artists, with Dave's album Psychodrama winning the Mercury Prize, Capaldi topping the singles chart for seven weeks with Someone You Loved<

Venezuela - Nexo has appointed a new sales manager for the Latin American nations. Hely Chirinos, formerly with Sun Music, Nexo distribution agent in Venezuela, joined the team in January.
Originally from Caracas in Venezuela, Hely Chirinos began his sound engineering career in 2003, and has worked for several touring companies, as well as advising on the design of projects in Colombia, Venezuela and the Caribbean islands. “I have used Nexo since the very beginning; I remember when we first heard the sound of the Nexo PS15, it was a life-changing moment!” he says. “In recent years, I have been lucky to work with Celso Papadopolous and Roberto Tschopp in the Nexo LatAm team, people that I admire who have contributed a lot to the growth of my professional career.”
As LatAm sales manager, Chirinos will work closely with Roberto Tschopp, one of Nexo’s top field e

Europe - Following the release of the L-ISA Controller v2.0 software update, the Robert Juliat SpotMe 3D tracking device is now fully compatible to operate with L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound technology, the lighting manufacturer has announced.
L-Acoustics recently revealed the January release of a significant software update for its L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal Sound technology that will enable users to monitor the positioning of any tracked object in a 3D view. With L-ISA Controller version 2.0, source parameters - including pan, width, height, distance, and elevation - can be mapped and scaled to all certified tracking systems.
In tandem with the L-ISA v1.10 update, L-Acoustics has announced that it has officially collaborated with tracking software providers whose technologies can now function within the L-ISA ecosystem, including Robert Juliat’s SpotMe tracking to

Poland - When production, lighting and multimedia designer, Pawel ‘Spider’ Pajak, and PERCEPTO [LAB] - the team responsible for creative visual production - were approached by production company, East Eventz, to design and deliver creative solutions for a one-off concert, they chose Ayrton MagicPanel-FX and Khamsin-S fixtures to provide contemporary, densely-coloured and dramatic effects for this very special evening.
The two-artist concert featured singer Dawid Podsiadlo and rapper Taco Hemingway, and was the first sold-out gig for Polish artists in the history of Warsaw’s PGE Narodowy Stadium, attracting an attendance of 60,000 people.
Spider chose Ayrton’s state-of-the-art technology - 64 MagicPanel-FX and 44 Khamsin-S fixtures, supplied by Transcolor - after many successful years using the brand: “I have also adopted Ayrton’s range of more classic, but

UK - Lighting designer Jacob Gowler took the opportunity to use Robe’s new T1 Profiles and LEDBeam 150s for the first time on a Cambridge Theatre Company (CTC) production of the crime-and-passion fuelled musical Chicago (High School Edition), staged over six performances in the 337-seat Great Hall at The Leys School in Cambridge.
CTC was founded in 2015 by Louis Ling to offer a range of opportunities for performers - young and old - to participate in high-quality theatre, and it now performs to over 9000 people annually. Since 2017, CTC has developed its focus on the youth community, and by working with professional directors, LDs, choreographers and musical directors, enables its young performers to experience unique opportunities to develop their skills.
For this production, the professionals were Jacob, director Chris Cuming, set and costume designer Franki
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ETC Halcyon Silent

High End Systems Halcyon Silent builds on ETC’s legacy of fanless automated fixtures by incorporating features from the highly sought-after Halcyon family. Halcyon Silent perfectly balances silent operation with brilliant output of 18,400 lumens and high-impact features. 

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UK - The Tony Award-winning Best Musical Dear Evan Hansen opened in London 19 November at the Noel Coward Theatre with video projection comprising the shows entire stage scenery.
Supplied by Stage Sound Services, three disguise vx 4 and four gx 1 servers powered projections for the show, highlighting the impact of social media on daily life and create an immersive social media environment on stage for the actors.
“The cornerstone of the play is Evan and his interaction with the real world through a social media lens,” says projection designer Peter Nigrini. “To successfully tell our story, social media needed to be a visceral part of the theatrical environment. After the set designer created a physical environment, my job was to bring this virtual world to life on stage and give it the emotional power that so many teenagers clearly feel in their day to day

USA - The Gaylord National Resort & Convention Centre in National Harbor, Maryland near the nation’s capital likes to celebrate Christmas in a big way. Set in the property’s 19-story glass garden atrium with its views of the river, Christmas on the Potomac is the hotel’s myriad holiday installation crowned by Cirque Dreams Unwrapped, a six-week-long, 25-minute Christmas fable combining artistry and showmanship from around the world with Christmas music, a dancing fountain, laser-light show and indoor snowfall.
Bringing this production sonically alive was the task of an L-Acoustics Kara system, designed and installed by Showtime Sound LLC of Frederick, Maryland. The system was split between the atrium’s lower and upper terraces: the former comprised a left-right design of one SB18 subwoofer ground-stacked with five Kara enclosures per side to cover t
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Create new traditions – Cameo P6 - High Output Full-Spectrum Ellipsoidal

Cameo's P6 is a future-proof LED profiler with a powerful 600 W RGBACL engine and 16,000 lumens. It’s an energy-efficient replacement for 2.5 kW halogen profile lights in theatres and venues. With excellent light quality and natural colour rendering, it fits perfectly in theatres, musicals, TV studios, congresses, and live events.

With an LED life of 50,000 hours and low power use, the P6 cuts energy costs and supports the EU’s ‘Green Deal’ goals for climate neutrality by 2050. It also meets updated eco-design rules for lighting.

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UK - Rising British singer and rapper Little Simz played her flagship show at London’s Kentish Town Forum in December, making video a priority for the first time to enhance her show for the tour’s largest audience.
Production AV was brought on board by Little Simz’s production manager, Eric Wade of EZ Services, who was on the lookout for a new video supplier. Wade was keen to ramp up the visual effect of the show and capture quality footage, not only for live stage to IMAG screens, but also for use in promo material.
“We had a pretty tight schedule to implement the video aspects for the biggest show of the tour and going with Production AV made perfect sense,” says Wade. “We wanted to give everyone in the audience the same experience, regardless of whether they were on the balcony or tucked away some place where sight lines weren’t so great.
“Pro

Slovakia - Bratislava’s new year celebrations, held in the heart of the Slovakian capital at the Rázusovo nábrežie (the banks of the River Danube) were brought to life by a spectacular lightshow masterminded by Kvant Show Production.
The laser specialists, who are also PR Lighting’s distributor for Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia, have been the event lighting contractors since the concept was introduced three years ago, and in addition to their own lasers, 24 pieces of PR Lighting’s Aqua 580 Beam helped provide a spectacular show as the city counted down to 2020.
Organised by Biela Noc (White Night), the artistic department of the Slovakia and Bratislava municipality, a crew of around 25 people were responsible for creating the infrastructure, including Layher structures, lighting, sound and lasers, and all programming.
This year’s event was based

Italy - The University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli in Naples is turning to a different use of immersive audio technology with one of its new physics research labs. The lab at the university’s Aversa campus is exploring the relationship between temperature, audio and visuals, and to do this in a scientific way the researchers required a space where each element could be precisely controlled. To achieve this control from an audio standpoint, the researchers turned to Martin Audio’s Sound Adventures.
The new lab has been purpose-built as a small, dedicated space within a historic building. Radiant heating panels on the walls and the floor and air conditioning system allow for the room’s temperature to be raised or lowered, while the intelligent lighting system allows for the management of this element.
The Sound Adventures solution controlling the sonic environment

Malaysia - Prolyte Asia Pacific (PAP) has joined forces with Doughty and Sixty82 to form Sixty82 Doughty Asia (SDA).
The move appears to be linked with the 2019 bankruptcy filling by Prolyte Group and the company's subsequent acquisition by Area Four Industries.
“For the past 15 years we have operated under the name PAP, however, due to recent events in the industry, PAP has decided to take a step forward and start a fresh chapter with new partners,” comments Menze van der Sluis, MD of PAP.
Known for its quality products, reliability, and education, along with a focus on safe working practice, customer satisfaction, and in-depth service, PAP has been a critical player in the Asian market for more than 15 years.
“Sixty82 was the best and only cho

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

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

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) has been appointed as the exclusive UK distributor for Calibre’s HQUltra700 series of universal live events switcher-scalers with immediate effect. Sister Company, A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ireland will handle distribution in the Republic of Ireland.
British-based manufacturer Calibre has been providing image scaling technology for over 30 years for use with large LED videowalls, designed for concerts, award ceremonies, rental/staging, advertising, and for image scalers for professional projection applications.
Calibre’s HQUltra700 series, consisting of the HQUltra730ASV and the HQUltra770ASV, are universal live events switcher-scalers with the ability to drive flat panel displays, projectors or LED videowalls.
Stuart Burdett, video sales manager comments: “Being able to provide our customers with a reliabl

Czech Republic - Audac has announced a partnership with Prague-based Audio Digital as the new exclusive distributor of its audio solutions in the Czech Republic.
Audio Digital’s managing director Michal Zeman comments: “I genuinely believe in the quality and innovation Audac offers and I am more than happy to be adding their products to our assortment. We at Audio Digital value a high performance/price ratio, and that is exactly what you get at Audac. I look forward to this partnership.”
Audac’s international sales executive Bart Vandermot adds: “It is always important to keep evolving as a business. By expanding our network and starting new partnerships, we can ensure that the clients all over the world can enjoy our innovations. We have the greatest confidence in our partnership with Audio Digital as we have seen first-hand the outstanding quality and ser

Germany - Optocore has appointed Dusseldorf-based United Brands GmbH (United B) as its new German distributors with immediate effect.
Tine Helmle, Optocore director of sales and marketing, comments: “With the expansion of our product portfolio such as Festival Box, AutoRouter and our Madi series United Brands was a perfect match. Due to their expertise and long-time experience in install and live events they bring huge potential in placing Optocore as the main sound distribution network on the market.”
United B’s Jens ‘Bubbes’ Steffan, who will largely oversee the Optocore account, adds: “We were familiar with Optocore technology through our distribution of DiGiCo [digital consoles]. So it was just a small step to contact Optocore. The company has a lot of very interesting products, which perfectly match our customers’ demands.”
Discussions had st

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

UK - Media server specialist disguise has released r17, the latest update to its software. Launched in response to user feedback, r17 brings workflow and user experience enhancements, including Manipulators and PreComps, and introduces Network Device Interface (NDI) support.
Users can now stream an NDI source from content tools to the disguise stage in realtime, unlocking new workflows for esports, fixed installations, and TV productions. Integration with NDI can also be used as a streaming preview from content tools, such as 3DSMax or AfterEffects that enable users to finesse content accurately in-situ, saving time and speeding up workflows.
For compositing, PreComps is a new workflow that allows users to create a pre-composition of layers which can be reused in multiple locations, making timelines cleaner and more flexible. It also enables the routing of video content

USA - City Theatrical’s DMXcat Multi Function Test Tool now provides expanded functionality with the new Multi Fixture (DMX) feature, which offers lighting professionals an efficient way to turn on and test multiple DMX lighting fixtures simultaneously.
DMXcat’s new Multi Fixture feature includes a patch that can be implemented to group and control lighting fixtures together to save time and improve workflows. This patch also allows users to assign numbers to channels or fixtures, which can be useful in creating a consistent and simplified numbering system between creative and technical teams of a given production or installation project. DMXcat users can use the patch to save, name, and re-load setups across various rigs, for use on future projects.
Other DMXcat improvements with the Multi Fixture feature include a new interface for the Fixture Controller app, w

USA - Nearly 40 years since making its debut on the professional recording scene, the AMS RMX16 Digital Reverberation System is being re-launched in hardware format as part of AMS Neve’s rack mounted 500 Series.
On show for the first time at NAMM 2020, the RMX16 500 Digital Reverb Module delivers all the musicality of its famous predecessor, but at a fraction of the price. Furthermore, this new unit incorporates the nine programmes that came as standard with the original AMS RMX16, PLUS the nine rare aftermarket programmes that were only available to users via a remote control with bar code reader input.
“We are very excited to be bringing back the much loved and instantly recognizable sound that made the original AMS RMX16 everyone’s favourite ‘go to’ reverb,” says AMS Neve’s distribution manager David Walton. “Its special sound has characterised an e

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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