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UK - TAIT has acquired Wakefield-based Brilliant Stages to create “an even more competitive platform capable of deploying a truly global suite of live event technology and solutions”.
The leadership and staff at both companies is expected to remain the same. It is unclear if Brilliant will continue to exist as a separate brand, but TAIT has stated that “the combined management teams see the value of building a global brand.” All existing projects will continue as scheduled and all points of contact will remain the same.
Ben Brooks, managing director of Brilliant, comments: “We have built the brand brick-by-brick with an equal focus on spectacle, design, employees, and customers. That is what makes being part of TAIT a perfect match, culturally we are 100% align

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Major Revamp - The Brit Awards have announced a major revamp for 2020, with fewer awards and an end to fan votes. Organisers promise "more music" as a result, with artists being given full creative control of their performances. Prizes like Best British Video and Best International Group have been cut, while the outstanding contribution award has been retired for 2020. Despite press reports earlier this year, gendered awards will remain part of the ceremony.
The changes come after several years of falling ratings. This year's ceremony, which saw performances from Pink, Dua Lipa and George Ezra, was watched by 4.1m people, down 400,000 from 2018.
This year, all awards will be decided by a 1,200-strong "official voting academy", made up of “experts” from all areas of the music industry. Brits chairman David Joseph explained the changes, saying: "We will be putting cr

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South Africa - DWR Distribution has announced the appointment of Nicole Barnes to the marketing team. Barnes was previously employed as the editor at etech magazine.
“We are very pleased to welcome Nicole on board,” said Duncan Riley of DWR. “Being a vibrant people’s person, we know that she will fit right in. Our brands have grown over the years, and with her help, we look forward to being able to offer an additional service to our clients and suppliers in terms of press releases and marketing ideas.”
(Jim Evans)
Doughty - Banner - from 4 July 2025
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Italy - Giovanni Barbieri has taken on the role of general manager of Italian pro audio manufacturer dBTechnologies, part of the RCF Group.
Barbieri joined dBTechnologies' sales force as export sales manager in 2009. In 2011, he became business development manager and since 2012 has served as sales and marketing director.
The new appointment was announced by the CEO of dBTechnologies and RCF Group, Arturo Vicari, who commented: "The group is expanding, we have several interesting projects to carry out and it is natural to consolidate the organisation of a company that in recent years has shown not only to create quality products, but also to be able to propose and distribute them to an increasing number of users. Over the years, Giovanni Barbieri has demonstrated many qualities, first of all the ability to transmit to the market who we are and what we can do. This make

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The Netherlands - Odin Audio Systems has introduced two two-way active side-fill speakers- SF-12A and SF-15A.
The loudspeakers have been introduced to make the Odin Line array set-ups more flexible, giving sound engineers the ability to expand the set-up to the live stage.
The SF-12A and SF-15A speakers have been engineered according to the already existing Odin-blueprint. They are equipped with Celestion speakers, DSP modules, roadproof enclosures and produce “full range, crystal clear sounds”.
The side-fills are designed for X-stage setups to provide a well-balanced and developed sound field across the entire stage. They give the sound engineer the opportunity to deliver a sound image across stage which allows all performers to hear a good mix of the whole band.
Both models have 800W continuous amp power and 3200W peak. For a setup which requires a bi

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UK - Mamma Mia! The Party has taken London’s O2 as its new permanent home. The high-octane immersive theatrical production which surrounds a dining experience, called for an active spatial soundscape to frame the energy of the event.
Abba’s Bjorn Ulvaeus approached Gareth Owen to bring both his theatre experience and the benefit of his rock n roll roots to the production. With its fully mobile cast and live band, Gareth centred the sound design around the powerful localisation and spatial control capabilities of two TiMax SoundHub-S64 3D audio processors, procured and supplied by Orbital Sound for the show.
Dining is established across two floors of the venue, styled as the Greek taverna straight from the Mamma Mia! movie set.
As band and cast move freely amongst the tables across the multiple levels of the space, the precise performer localisa

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USA - History runs deep at Washington’s City Tavern Club. Built in 1786, the venerable Federalist structure (one of the last such taverns in the US capital) counted George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson as regulars. Today, the venue hosts a variety of upscale events, and although it provides an evocative setting, power limitations in the 233-year old building can present challenges for anyone looking to light these affairs.
At a recent, corporate showcase at the historic building, Tarik Smith of Atmosphere, Inc. met these challenges and transformed its interior with elegant uplighting created by wireless, battery-powered WELL Fit fixtures from Chauvet Professional.
“As with any historic venue the biggest issue is power, so I had to pay a lot of attention to the design,” says Smith. “The limited power draw at the club meant we had to go wireless, b
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USA - Robe’s new Esprite moving lights made their US live TV debut on the 2019 CMT Artists of the Year event, staged at the Schermerhorn Symphony Centre in Nashville, Tennessee.
“I absolutely Love these lights,” declared the event’s lighting designer Tom Kenny who worked alongside a talented production team which included set designer Anne Brahic.
The Esprites plus other extra lights on the show - which also included Robe BMFL WashBeams and Spiider LED wash beams - were delivered by Morris Light & Sound. They were used together with fixtures from the venue’s house rig.
Ten of the 20 Esprites were positioned on one of the rear LX production trusses installed at the Schermerhorn Symphony Centre for this event, and used for rear lighting the band, and for texturing, colouring and gobo work on the stage.
Another 10 luminaires on one of the down

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UK - The latest chapter of the Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes tour features live onstage content creation together with a custom video package from Universal Pixels
Thom Yorke’s latest tour is a live show that ‘immerses audiences in a sensory bath of abstract visuals and captivating music’.
Yorke is joined onstage by long-term Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich and audiovisual composer Tarik Barri, who is working in his own Versum software.
Universal Pixels has supplied the tour since it first set out for a short US run in December 2017, providing a curved array of three or five (venue dependent) projection screens. For the latest shows, which included tour dates and festival slots across Europe and the US, UP created a newly-devised, adaptable video package, which has been designed for quick deployment and speedy load-outs.
It features a custom dolly packa

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UK - Magazine London, a purpose-built event space, opened adjacent to the O2 Arena in Greenwich Peninsula this August.
Its simple architectural form offers clean and functional spaces that provide ‘a means for large-scale creative expression’ with 3,205sq.m of versatile interior space for up to 3,000 people, and the capability of a further 7,000 people across the venue’s outdoor showground.
Technical consultant, Simon Jones of SJ-TPM, recommended MDG haze generators for this new venue. He supplied two MDG ATMe haze generators, complete with purpose-built touring cases for easy storage and deployment.
Jones was brought onboard by Venue Lab to review, recommend and deliver the technical infrastructure, establish and fine tune the requirements and purchase the equipment for this multi-purpose venue. Jones worked on the various phases in collaboration with Vib

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UK - Bespoke productions specialist, Subfrantic has invested in Prolights' next generation OmegaPIX LED video screen to deliver a visual experience for client events.
Established in 1993, Subfrantic supplies high-end AV and lighting equipment to the events industry, including tours & festivals, one-off shows, theatre, corporate events, gospel and houses of worship.
As the first phase of a new investment in its Video inventory, Subfrantic director, Stephen Davies contacted one-stop equipment distributor, A.C. Entertainment Technologies to recommend a solution.
He comments: “We had made a small initial investment in an indoor LED screen to gauge our customers’ interest. After opening up new markets and clients from it, for the past 18 months we had been auditioning various LED products as we toyed with the idea of making a significant investment.”

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UK - A diverse line up of well-known names descended on Cheltenham for the 70th anniversary of its Literature Festival, including headliners David Cameron, Lenny Henry and Debbie Harry.
The multi-site event demanded some serious screen, camera and crew to capture the bookish action and augment it for audiences. Long-time professional partner Production AV - which has been designing AV solutions for Cheltenham Festivals for nine years - supplied 10 venues across the sprawling site, including 2,250-seater The Centaur. In total, more than 800 writers, journalists and cultural commentators appeared over 10 days.
Production AV’s high-end stock of Agile Remote Cameras and Barco HDX projectors were out in force.
“Cheltenham Festival is one of our longstanding clients and the Literature events are well attended, respected and hugely enjoyable,” says Production AV

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Dominican Republic Sound Video Lighting (SVL) has installed a full complement of Martin Audio CDD speakers and SX subwoofers in the Peperoni restaurant and bar in the Dominican Republic capital of Santo Domingo.
Describing the venue, SVL’s Jonathan Del Villar explains: “Peperoni is a very popular restaurant serving what is essentially international cuisine in a variety of styles. Owner Jean-Pierre Bahsa used to be a club owner who knows that business very well. He had gone to Bachata Rosa, a popular restaurant in Punta Cana, owned by singer-songwriter Juan Luis Guerra, and was very impressed by the Martin Audio system that we had installed there.
“Since we are friends, he asked us to work on the project early on during the planning stages which was good because we were able to have significant impact in terms of everything that has to do with technology - the aud

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Trinidad & Tobago - PR Lighting fixtures were out in force at the recent nine-day Divali Nagar Festival on the Caribbean island of Trinidad & Tobago.
Promoted by the National Council for Indian Culture (NCIC), and now in its 33rd year, Divali Nagar is an annual exposition of Hindu culture (generally) and Indo-Trinidadian culture (specifically). It is closely associated with the Diwali Hindu Festival of Light celebration in Trinidad and Tobago.
For the past 15 of those years, All Events Lighting Systems (AELS), part of the SM Group, has been providing technical services to the event at the Divali Nagar site, located in the borough of Chaguanas.
The SM Group itself comprises All Events Lighting Systems, All Events System Ltd and S. Maharaj Equipment Services Limited. SM Group itself stands for ‘Shival Maharaj Group of Companies’ and the organisation c

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Europe - With more than 50 destinations across Europe, Event Hospitality Management Holding currently operates more than 80 business and conferencing hotels in Germany, Italy and The Netherlands under its Event Hotels brand.
The group’s corporate management regularly liaises with the directors of each hotel, with the focal point of these important meetings being the large conference room at the corporate headquarters situated in Cologne on the banks of the River Rhine.
In February 2019, work finished on an ambitious installation which featured Shure’s Microflex Complete Wireless Solution, complemented by an IntelliMix P300 Conferencing DSP Processor. The system was planned and installed by systems integrator Tascan.
Due to the conference room being an oblong shape, the previously installed conferencing system was unable to guarantee speech intelligibility dur

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UK - Big the Musical closed at the Dominion Theatre in London's West End this weekend following a successful nine-week run. The Theatre Royal Plymouth production opened in 2016 and played at the Bord Gais Energy Theatre in Dublin into 2017. Finally after more than two years, it made its West End debut in September with production manager Hugh Borthwick bringing Unusual Rigging on board to handle the rigging elements of this ambitious production.
Hugh explains: "I brought Unusual Rigging on to this project right at the very start as I wanted them to be part of the design process for the production and not just to supply a rigging system. I've worked with Unusual for many years and know that their skill and ability to make the seemingly impossible happen is second to none. I've worked with Alan Jacobi and Simon Stone many times, and on Big the Musical, Mark Davie

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Japan - The New National Theatre, Tokyo (NNTT) has invested in a stock of Robert Juliat Oz 600W LED followspots for its three performance spaces. The new LED models replace conventional source followspots as part of an upgrade of the lighting inventory for this internationally important arts venue.
New National Theatre, Tokyo is Japan’s only one dedicated to the contemporary performing arts of opera, ballet, dance and drama. The NNTT complex comprises the Opera Palace, Playhouse and The Pit, and hosts over 300 performances a year to around 200,000 theatre goers.
Four of Robert Juliat’s Oz 7°-14° LED Top Control followspots were supplied by RJ distributor, Sogo Butai, initially for use in the small Pit Theatre, but also with the intention of relocating them to the larger spaces of the Playhouse and Opera Palace as needed.
“Because of its silent operation,

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South Africa - Technical supply company, HireZone Audio Visual, used 14 new Vari-Lite VL2600 Profile luminaires for the key lighting at the 28th World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa, which took place 4 - 6 September at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
The fixtures helped lighting designer and operator Gary Sam create a bright, balanced and consistent look for the live broadcast of the international panel in the Convention Centre’s Plenary Room.
With the theme Shaping Inclusive Growth and Shared Futures in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the WEF saw leaders from across the globe gather to discuss the future of Africa. Hirezone was appointed by an international team to supply all technical for the entire event.
This was the first time for Hirezone using their new VL2600 Profiles, which they had purchased from South African Vari-Lite distr

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UK - Green Hippo’s Hippotizer media servers helped to deliver a press launch show for cosmetics and perfume brand Lancôme in London in September. Produced by Michael Bell Brand Communications, the event included custom video content and projection surfaces designed and delivered by UK-based projection mapping specialist Motion Mapping.
Motion Mapping fielded a deceptively simple set-up: two Hippotizer Amba media servers, one as a main server and the other as backup, plus two high-powered laptops for show control and on-site media processing. “The laptops are useful for last-minute on-site changes,” explains Motion Mapping’s Stuart Harris. “By running the file conversions on a separate laptop, I can convert the content quickly, without affecting the Hippo - you just drop it in and it’s ready. Then we run everything through the Amba, a DP [DisplayPort] output to o

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UAE - Sixty82 has appointed Unusual Rigging & Engineering LLC as its exclusive representative in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Saudi Arabia, for its full trussing and staging product range. Unusual Rigging will exercise supervision on a broad scope of possibilities, advising customers on the best Sixty82 solution for their specific needs.
Unusual Rigging is a highly experienced provider of rigging and stage engineering solutions, working around the globe, principally in the entertainment, special event, exhibition and presentation industries. In 2009 Unusual Rigging & Engineering LLC opened for business. Unusual Rigging’s specialist teams boast a wide range of disciplines, and all are passionate about what they do. “At Sixty82, we share this passion for the industry,” comments Fokko Smeding, CEO of Sixty82. “We therefore believe that Unusual Rigging &a

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Switzerland - Audac has appointed Radio Matériel as the exclusive distributor of its audio solutions in Switzerland. Radio Matériel will be handling sales, distribution and service of the complete Audac product line-up from their offices in Renens near Lausanne.
Radio-Matériel SA is a wholesaler specialised in the import and distribution of audiovisual products in both installed as live environments. The company has a long history that dates back to the year 1932.
Radio Matériel CEO Christian Cornaz looks towards the partnership. “Audac impressed us with their innovative product range, therefore we are delighted to be adding their products into our catalogue. Together with Audac, we will be able to meet the needs and requirements of our customers even more.”
Audac’s international sales director, Marc Asselberghs adds: “We at Audac are always looking
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