USA - Fans, who turned out for Anthony Hamilton’s three-date Florida swing in late December, finished 2019 with a bang. In addition to seeing the Grammy-winning R&B artist perform his hits, they got to enjoy a stellar cast of supporting artists, featuring Ja Rule, K Michelle and Joe.
Each act was supported by a punchy Josh Lawson lightshow that delivered its searing visuals with help from six Chauvet Professional Maverick MK2 Profile fixtures supplied by Apogee Productions of Longwood, Florida.
“I approached each act differently as Ja Rule is classic hard-hitting rap, Joe is a more laid-back version of R&B, and K Michelle is an artist who tells a lot of stories of her past relationships,” says Lawson. “Since the three stops made in Florida were at arenas

USA - Wayne State College is a mid-sized public school in rural Wayne, Nebraska. The college’s theatre arts degree programme provides its students with three performance venues housed in the Lied Performing Arts Centre.
At 675 seats, the Ramsey Theatre is the largest of the three, but until recently, the quality of its sound reinforcement system was not commensurate with the quality of the programme. Local AV integration company Adams Production Services recently designed and installed a Danley Sound Labs system that delivers “vastly superior intelligibility and impact at a fraction of the former system’s size”.
“Last year, I updated the PA system in Wayne State College’s gymnasium with six Danley OS80 loudspeakers, and they loved the improvement,” explains Brian Adams, owner of Adams Production Services. “They showed me the system in the Ramsey Theatr

UK - Lighting designer James Scott specified 96 impression X4 Bar 20 battens from GLP when London-based rapper / producer AJ Tracey played two shows at Alexandra Palace recently.
The gigs were the culmination of a long year in which Scott, director of multi-disciplinary creative design studio Suluko, had been an essential part of the artist’s creative team, headed by Tawbox. AJ Tracey toured first the UK Academy circuit followed by the festival season, with a simple floor package.
Lighting inventory for the tour had been supplied by Siyan but when it came to the Ally Pally shows production manager Joel Stanley awarded the project to Neg Earth.
The creative for the show was devised by Tawbox, who designed the screen layout and the concept of AJ performing in the round. “This was a specific show design for Ally Pally,” explains Scott. “The concept of the sh

UK - Music producer George Moorey likes to weave a little historical magic into his recordings, by taking his mobile setup - which now includes an Audient iD14 audio interface - into some of the ancient buildings of his adopted home. Capturing the spirit of the city in the form of samples, he showcases them in a surprising variety of genres including choral, classical, folk, hip-hop, electronica, grime and rock.
His most recent project is a prolific songwriting collaboration with fellow musician and lyricist, Shane Young, called The Powdered Earth. The first single Hold Your Breath is released on 31 January and incorporates piano samples he’s been recording all around the city.
Moorey says: “Piano is crucial to the sound of The Powdered Earth. The parts are simple and repetitive, so I record them as MIDI using

UK - Established over 60 years ago, Belfast-based Niavac has grown steadily to become one of Northern Ireland’s most successful systems integrators, covering the corporate, healthcare, hospitality and education sectors. The acquisition of audio company Loft Sound in 2016 expanded Niavac’s portfolio into the live event industry, a business which is proving every bit as successful.
The company has invested in a Yamaha Rivage PM7 digital mixing system to continue its commitment to high quality service and it has already been out on tour.
“We used Yamaha digital mixers from the beginning,” says Loft Sound’s Steve Corr, who became Niavac events manager at the time of the acquisition. “Our first mixer was an LS9 and our inventory went on to include M7CL, PM5D, all three CL series mixers and smaller analogue boards for conference work.”
He continues: “We

UK -There is limited time to secure your place at a free industry event dedicated to the changes to the off-payroll working rules (known as IR35).
Co-hosted by PLASA and the MIA, Get your business ready for IR35 is taking place this Thursday, 30 January, at the Victory Services Club in London.
The event is relevant to large business owners and freelancers / contractors alike and will see HR expert Nicky Gleadow (MD, The HR Point) explain how the changes to the IR35 legislation will impact employers and off-payroll workers. There will also be complimentary food alongside plenty of networking time with fellow professionals, says PLASA.
IR35 is a piece of UK government legislation that aims to determine whether a worker is an employee or an off-payroll contractor, ensurin

UK - White Light has supplied the lighting for You Stupid Darkness!, which recently opened at the Southwark Playhouse in London.
Presented by Paines Plough and Theatre Royal Plymouth, You Stupid Darkness! is a new play set within the Brightline Call Centre. It focusses on four colleagues who try to keep their lives together whilst the outside world falls apart.
The lighting designer on the show is Peter Small, who comments: “My brief for this production was that it shouldn’t feel ‘lit’; meaning I wanted it to feel as natural as possible to the audience. The concept was that you had sort of peeled the wall off this strange office and were peering in from a dark place, somewhat ‘fly on the wall’. This concept meant working closely with set designer Amy Jane Cook and adding in masking which would allow me to drop the rig very low and hide it away

USA - The ninth annual iHeart Radio Music Festival landed in the Nevada desert with stars including Alicia Keys, Miley Cyrus and Green Day. The event, held at the T-Mobile arena, was broadcast live on FOX, complete with energetic sets and an array of musical talent. Green Hippo was at the iHeart of all things visual, with Boreal+ Media Servers powering pre-made content.
Jason Rudolph was at the helm as screens producer, using the in-built Hippotizer toolkit to manipulate content to fit each artist’s performance, in front of two ‘SuperWall’ LED screens, one on each side of the stage.
“We used four Boreal+ servers, as two redundant systems - an A and a B system for the A and B screens,” explains Rudolph. “Each main server was doing four outputs to drive all the content for the show. Everything feeds into two linked E2 frames to get onto the screen and allow
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Thailand - Since their debut album in 2001, Potato have steadily grown to become one of the most admired Thai rock bands, attracting a strong following among teenagers in South East Asia.
Their latest two Potato Magic Hours concerts were a testament to their popularity, with thousands of fans coming together to enjoy the band’s performances at the Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani, with an L-Acoustics K1/K2 system helping to bring the magic to life and ‘kick out the jams’ at the second largest exhibition and convention venue in Asia.
For Potato Magic Hours, Thai AV rental partner MediaVision (1994) Co was chosen to deploy the PA system. The venue presented the team with challenges from the outset.
“Even though the venue is very popular with concerts and live shows, the acoustics were our major concern,” says MediaVision chief system engine

Italy - Audio engineer Paolo Calza has joined Outline in the role of pro applications engineer and Outline array trainer.
Calza graduated from Rome’s Saint Louis College of Music as a sound engineer and MIDI programmer and later from the University of Ferrara as a technician specialised in acoustics.
He has collaborated with numerous companies in the pro-audio sector as a technical consultant. Over the last 10 years, he has also concentrated on the acoustic design of loudspeaker systems. Calza has considerable experience in the live music field, working regularly on large events and national and international festivals.
He states: “I consider every new venture as a steep path to be ‘climbed’ to achieve new goals. I hope to be able to offer my support and experience to Outline, its distributors and its clients worldwide, and manage to communicate them with

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

USA - Obsidian Control Systems’ complete line-up of Netron data distribution products is now in stock and ready to ship from the company’s US and European warehouses.
Netron is a comprehensive range of DMX splitters and ethernet to DMX gateways, supporting applications from live production and venue installations to architectural environments. All Netron products can be configured through either the internal OLED screen and encoder, or the integrated web menu system, which works from PC, Mac and any mobile device.
The Netron range offers three Ethernet to DMX gateways and three RDM splitters.
The EN12 is a powerful, high-density Ethernet to DMX gateway with 12 RDM compatible ports. The EN4 is a powerful Ethernet to DMX gateway with four RDM-compatible ports. Designed for live production and installations with a rugged housing and high-performance processing,

USA - Chauvet Professional has released the Ovation CYC 1 FC.
Debuted at LDI 2019, the fixture can be positioned unobtrusively on the stage and in the broadcast studio. With an illuminance of 173lx at 5m, the CYC 1 FC ensures a wide, smooth coverage area, often allowing larger backdrops to be fully illuminated only from the ground, without the need for downlighting. Since its light source is so near the ground, it can wash backdrops without dark dead areas at the lower end.
The CYC 1 FC can also a foot light, fill light and side light in a wide variety of applications. When the fixture serves as a foot light, its in built shutter can serve as a glare shield, in addition to being used to adjust the light’s throw. An integrated kick stand adds to the fixture’s versatility.
Drawing on Ovation’s award-winning RGBAL colour-mixing technology, the CYC 1 FC produc

South Korea - In common with many older houses of worship, modern expectations have meant that the audio quality of sermons in the 1936-built Changsin Church in the Gangnam district of Seoul, South Korea was no longer good enough. A replacement sound reinforcement system was needed and, after a direct comparison with systems from other major manufacturers, an Alcons Audio LR14 pro-ribbon system was chosen by the church.
The church formed a committee which appointed Jang Young-wook, a church sound engineer and executive director of the Korean Church Acoustics Association, as the project consultant. He contacted the representatives of eight leading audio system manufacturers and asked them to participate in a briefing to be held at the church.
The companies included audio contractor Sky Sound, based in the city of Daegu, which had previously worked with Alcons Audio’s

South Africa - DWR will host Hippotizer training and workshop on 17 and 18 March in Johannesburg.
Hosted by Dylan Jones, the course will cover a range of topics including Hippolauncher, Output Manager, Media Manager, Visualizer, Pinbridge, Multi-Controller, DMX control, Timeline, Videomapper, Pixelmapper and Shape. 
Attendees are requested to bring a Green Hippo Server or Play Software on PC, Server Accessories and a valid ID.
The course will be held at DWR, C1, Kimbult Industrial Park, 9 Zeiss Road, Laserpark, Honeydew. The cost is R1,800 and includes a light lunch and refreshments. To book, please visit this website.

South Africa - Truck and bus manufacturer Scania recently launched its new product line for the African market at a much-anticipated launch event, held at Montecasino in Johannesburg.
Blue Moon brought on board Dream Sets, one of South Africa’s prominent set and technical services companies, to manufacture the set and exhibition areas and to deliver technical services for the event.
Toni Van Oostenrijk of SpaceCadet, who took the lead role in designing the look and feel of the set for the event, drew inspiration from the front grill of the new Scania trucks, which he worked into the design of the bar and reception area. “When we first proposed this idea to the client, they seemed a little sceptical. However, as with so many of Toni’s designs, as soon as they saw it, they instantly fell in love with the concept,” says Dream Sets project manager, Billy van der M

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

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)

France - Creative lighting artist / designer LeRoy Bennett utilised 91 Robe BMFL WashBeam high powered moving lights - nine working in conjunction with RoboSpot remote operation systems - to help deliver the opening ceremony (OC) complete with holographic projection effects, for the of the Riot Games’ 2019 League of Legends World Championship Finals, staged at the Accor Arena in Paris.
Roy collaborated closely with the creative team from Riot Games and Possible Productions who briefed him on the look and style of lighting that they wanted to achieve for the in-the-round OC show. It energised an arena packed with eSports fans ready for a thrilling seat-edge final.
Drawing on his previous experience of working with Kaleida Holonet screens, projection and multi-layered imagery shows, Roy knew he needed mega-bright moving lights with super-accurate shutters - and the BMF

USA - This week at Los Angeles’ Ahmanson Theatre, Sting takes centre stage to bring his musical, The Last Ship, to the West Coast deploying a d&b Soundscape immersive sound system. The show tells the story of two childhood sweethearts set to the backdrop of the collapse of the shipbuilding industry and features an original Tony-nominated score with music and lyrics by Sting, who will also perform for the month-long duration of the show’s LA residency.
Providing the sound experience to create the various scenes and acoustic moods for the performance is a system designed by Sebastian Frost and supplied by Stage Sound Services. It continues to utilise d&b En-Scene object-based mixing and En-Space room emulation software running on the DS100 system processor and a comprehensive d&b A-Series loudspeaker system.
Frost has been associated with the produ

UK - The International Convention Centre Wales (ICC Wales) is a joint venture partnership between the Welsh Government and Celtic Manor Resort. The centre provides 26,000sq.m of floor space for up to 5,000 delegates, which includes an auditorium with tiered seating for 1,500, a 4,000sq.m pillar-free space that can be divided into six sections creating up to 25 different configurations, and an additional 15 flexible meeting rooms.
Architecturally, it is a refreshing departure from standard conference centre fare, with a triple height atrium at its entrance and a light and airy feel throughout. It has been designed to engender a feeling of well-being, and many of its spaces have impressive views out across the adjoining woodland.
This open, progressive approach has also been applied to the centre’s AV design integration, and installation processes, which gave technica

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