UK - Wire and fibre rope assemblies supplier Rope Assemblies is celebrating two years since Linda Martin became company MD. The Retford-based organisation, which became part of the Unusual group in 2017, has experienced significant change, with the implementation of new company policies, best practice procedures and increased sales.
"In the blink of an eye, two years have passed, which seems like no time at all,” comments Martin. “Then we took a step back and realised how much the company has changed in that time, thanks to all the hard work that every member of the team has put in, and we felt it was worth marking the anniversary."
The biggest cause for celebration is the record sales figures that Rope Assemblies is achieving on a month on month basis. "If we look a

UK - The 1975’s video for new single People sees the band performing the alt rock track inside an LED cube, supplied and installed by 80six Ltd, displaying swirling lyrics and quickfire, colour-changing content. Filmed at London’s Black Island Studios, the production was an ambitious surround-video setup, powered by a Hippotizer V4 Taiga servers from Green Hippo. Directed by Warren Fu, the video featured premade content inspired by the band’s lyrics, created by Jon Emmony.
Simon Harris, project manager at Bryte Design, was approached by The 1975’s tour director James Valpy to project manage the video content delivery. “Set up was simple, utilising Hippotizer’s Output Manager and VideoMapper to map the five sides of the cube, outputting six HD signals via Evision LED processors,” says Harris. “As the content was running to timecode, playback was simple

USA - Indie singer-songwriter Mitski has endeared her to a growing fan base. She followed up a successful 2018 tour with a 2019 spring outing that also saw the artist playing summer dates before wrapping up in September with two New York shows at Summer Stage in Central Park.
Lighting design for the Be the Cowboy tour was by John Foresman, who employed an Elation rig of Platinum HFX moving heads and SixPar 200 colour-changing PAR lights to complement the emotive singer’s lyrically rich songs. Lighting supply was by Pisgah AVL of North Carolina.
Mitski’s songs are played along melodic lines that can vary in tempo, with carefully choreographed movement key part of the show. Foresman describes his design as dynamic with a lot of energy during the high points and still calmness during the quieter points of the set. The design, he says, was focused around the ch

UK - The MK Gallery in Milton Keynes is a new arts venue designed by award-winning architectural firm, 6a architects. The development, which opened in March, encompasses the original MK Gallery and adds a new structure to more than double the space available, providing five exhibition galleries, a learning and community studio, and The Sky Room, a flexible auditorium on the upper floor.
With 150 retractable seats (300 standing), the Sky Room is the home of independent cinema in Milton Keynes (in partnership with Curzon) and also hosts live music, theatre, lectures, conferences and more. The venue is equipped with an EM Acoustics sound system based on the EMS Series and the dedicated installation i-Series range supplied by event production specialists, Hawthorn.
An EM Acoustics system was specified as part of the global design of the Sky Room. “It sounded great but I

Europe - Iconic German hard rock band Rammstein have been on the road again as part of the European Stadium tour, a visual and sonic extravaganza of lighting, video and pyro effects.
Roland Greil from Woodroffe Bassett Design (WBD) created the lighting design together with Patrick Woodroffe and specified 56 Robe BMFL WashBeams, 12 BMFL Follow Spot LTs (long throws) and six LEDBeam 150 moving lights - among many others - for this tour.
WBD was contracted to produce and coordinate the tour’s production design including lighting, set and video design plus technical integration.
The lighting was a collaboration between Roland and Patrick Woodroffe who is also the show designer. Florian Wieder and Cuno von Hahn looked after the set design, and Jeremy Lloyd from Wonder Works directed the technical aspects of the design and integration. The band are also very

USA - City Theatrical’s Multiverse wireless DMX/RDM technology is currently being used to provide DMX data for the windmill and carousel lighting features at Historic Hudson Valley’s The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze at Van Cortlandt Manor in Croton-on-Hudson, New York.
After 10 years of working on The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze, the lighting design team from Jay Woods Design chose Multiverse wireless DMX for its ability to broadcast multiple universes of DMX data across an open field to receivers that are in constant motion. With an anticipated total audience of 170,000+, the Multiverse wireless DMX system was also an ideal solution for its ability to have a small radio footprint despite transmitting in a crowded radio spectrum.
“With the Multiverse Transmitter, we were able to focus on setting up and talking to a single device, as opposed to setting

UK - ArKaos, realtime visual processing technology provider for live performance and displays, enjoyed a busy PLASA 2019 expo in London Olympia (15-17 September) on the stand of its UK and Irish Republic distributor, Entedi.
ArKaos highlighted the latest version of its flagship MediaMaster Pro 5.6 realtime video control software, which is also now available with a License Rental service that enables weekly rental periods of MediaMaster Pro usage. This greatly increases flexibility and affordability for anyone involved in specific projects or events on which they want to use this award-winning platform, says the company.
ArKaos CEO Agnes Wojewoda comments: “PLASA was great! A lot of buzz and activity at the show and a lot of interest in MediaMaster Pro in particular and in the new Licence Rental options for this as well as some other ArKaos products. It’s

Spain - Every year, Arenal Sound - an open-air music festival held in Arenal de Burriana - presents an unbeatable package of music and party by the beach. In 2019, more than 300,000 flocked to the event, with tickets selling out 14 hours after going on sale, even without the full line-up being announced.
DAS Audio has accompanied the festival over the past 10 years, providing new solutions and optimizing resources and service. In this last edition, DAS Audio has been on all the stages deploying the necessary equipment to cover the acoustic needs of this large-scale event and rising to the challenge posed by the location of the stages near a residential area.
With this in mind, Audioprobe, the company responsible for the sound system and its installation at the festival, deployed on the Desperados main stage 32 AERO-40A, 18 flown UX-218A subwoofers and six sta
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USA - Summer’s not over yet, at least not for country singer-songwriter Thomas Rhett who continues his headlining Very Hot Summer tour of North America. A large complement of Claypaky Mythos 2 and Scenius Unico lighting fixtures is accompanying the tour, which is in support of Rhett’s fourth studio album, Center Point Road. The tour kicked off in Montreal last April and will conclude in Nashville in October.
New York City’s Fireplay is serving as the lighting and production designers for the Very Hot Summer tour with Upstaging, the lighting vendor. “We’ve worked with TR for about five years as his shows keep expanding and growing,” notes Nick Whitehouse, co-founder of Fireplay. “This tour is based on a concept we all developed together. Looks progress throughout the show and are different for each song so there are lots of cues an

UK - iMAG, Poole-based creative technical production and LED screen supplier, has just invested in a whopping 300 panels of ROE Visual Diamond 2mm indoor LED screen and has chosen Brompton Technology’s SX40 processors and XD 10G data distribution units as its perfect accompaniment.
Working with a diverse range of clients, from well-known brands such as Dyson, Samsung and Calvin Klein, to a multitude of festivals and conferences, iMAG knows that having the best products available in its portfolio is vital.
“ROE Visual is an industry leader. We’ve been using their LED screens since the very beginning and they’ve always worked really well for us,” says iMAG co-founder and director, Charli Harding. “With requests for hi res indoor screens increasing significantly, we decided that now was the time to add ROE’s Diamond 2mm to our inventory.”
W

UK - The Raspberry Pi Foundation recently installed two Shure Microflex Advance MXA910 ceiling array microphones at its headquarters in Cambridge.
Tthe UK-based charity required a multi-functional, reliable microphone system for one large collaboration space with the option of dividing into smaller spaces and not compromising sound quality. By selecting two MXA910’s the foundation can configure the microphones for complete coverage and ensure optimum capture of the talker when connecting with its UK and International sites or for two smaller programs happening simultaneously such as their ‘Code Club’ and ‘Raspberry Jam’ social events.
With both spaces attended primarily by children, the system needed to offer excellent audio quality while being efficient and effective in its performance.
AV specialists Snelling Business Systems were on hand to

The Netherlands - Lichtwerk (Light works) is a Netherlands-based technical production company which works closely with a wide selection of lighting and visual designers, particularly for theatre shows, tours and corporate events. The company recently invested in Robe’s fantastic T1 Profile LED moving light, which is designed for theatre, touring and TV.
Jacco Pattist founded the company in 1995, and his association with Robe goes back to the very early days when the Czech manufacturer was still an OEM supplier. Once Robe was launched in 2002, Lichtwerk was an early adopter of the brand, a trend that continued through the ColorWash 250 series, then the ColorWash 750 and ColorSpot 700 series, the DT 3000 and 7000, and more recently with LEDBeam 300s MMX Spots / WashBeams and LEDBeam 150s. The latest T1s were purchased because, collectively as a company, “We love tungsten!” decl

UK - On the surface, My Favorite Year and Children of Eden are very different shows. The Stephen Flaherty-Lynn Ahrens musical takes a farcical behind the scenes look at 1950s television, as a hapless writer tries to keep an irascible matinee idol from a bygone era out of trouble before his appearance on a live show. By contrast, Steven Schwartz’ Eden recounts the story behind creation in the Book of Genesis.
Different? Indeed! But both shows offer audiences the shared experience of departing from everyday reality and cry out for brightness and colour on stage - which is what Nic Farman provided for recent productions of the plays at Mountview’s new theatre. Aiding him in this undertaking was a collection of Chauvet Professional Ovation fixtures supplied by White Light.
“I’ve worked on a number of productions for Mountview before,

The Netherlands - As part of a 15-hour performance spread over three days, Dutch National Opera performed major parts of Karlheinz Stockhausen's aus LICHT cycle.
One of the world’s top five opera companies, the Dutch National Opera opted for a combination of Christie Terra for AV distribution and processing, and Christie Pandoras Box for content management and control of the four LED video walls, cameras and projectors used throughout the performance space.
The performances were produced in cooperation with the Holland Festival, the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and the Stockhausen Foundation, and held at Amsterdam’s Gashouder, a former industrial hall that now serves as an event space. The audience experienced some of the highlights from the artist's seven operas, named after weekdays, during the three-day performance. This is the first time that a summa

UK - Shure UK has appointed Giuseppe ‘Peppe’ Mallozzi to its UK pro audio team.
Mallozzi will work with new and existing customers and build brand awareness in the concert touring, theatre and broadcast markets. He joins Shure UK after eight years at Autograph as technical sales engineer, where he was responsible for large-scale wireless projects across the UK and wider entertainment industry.
“I am very excited about my new venture at Shure UK, a company of which I have worked with for many years,” says Mallozzi. “I look forward to working with customers in London and the South and developing new relationships in an industry I am proud to be a part of.”
Stuart Moots, associate director, pro audio at Shure UK, adds: "Peppe's knowledge and experience make him an ideal fit for this role. As a trusted face within our industry, he is able to hit the grou

Europe - Panasonic has announced availability of ‘the world’s smallest 50,000 lumen laser projector with Native 4K resolution’. It delivers new levels of immersive experience at live events and entertainment venues with half the effort and twice the reliability of existing solutions, says the company.
Designed for the rental and staging market and theme parks, where fast set-up and reliability are essential, the PT-RQ50K is a single body, 3-Chip DLP laser projector will be available in Europe from December 2019.
“RQ50K is an all-in-one projector that allows our partners to create breath-taking experiences with ease and reassurance,” says Hartmut Kulessa, European marketing manager at Panasonic Business. “It is the combination of our finest image quality and our long proven ‘half’ and ‘dual’ concept. Partners will be able to deliver the premium exper

UK - ETC and High End Systems celebrated a successful tradeshow following three days of busy stands, Tech Talks seminars and a win for ETC’s Augment3d at the PLASA Awards for Innovation.
The new 3D programming environment, which is part of the upcoming Eos v3.0 software release triumphed at PLASA in a ceremony that celebrates the year’s most pioneering product designs. Judges commented: “This will change the way lighting design and operation works by increasing speed in the lighting workflow and making the process from design to conception easier to manage.”
This was proven during the tradeshow at ETC’s Augment3d challenge event where participants were invited to create five focus palettes on an Eos family console in the quickest time possible using either encoders, a mouse click (in the 3D model) or the Augment3d Focus Wand. The quickest time recorded was 37

UK - Fresh from an award-winning PLASA Show in London, Nexo and Yamaha are again teaming up on stand D2 for the BPM DJ show (5-6 October, Cranmore Park, Birmingham).
Having recently won a PLASA Award for Innovation, the Nexo P12 point-source loudspeaker will be a highlight, along with the L15 subwoofer. Described by the PLASA judges as “the loudspeaker version of lighting’s [ETC] Source Four, having interchangeable horns with tool-less interchangeability”, the P12 features a system for varying high-frequency coverage patterns. Available in both touring and installation versions, the P12 is ideal for a wide range of short-throw sound reinforcement applications.
BPM visitors will be able to hear the P12 and L15 in action at the show’s Sound Experience, where a range of speaker manufacturers will have three demonstration slots each day.
Yamaha will also be s

UK - Owned by AB Hotels, Sopwell House is a luxury country house hotel set in 12 acres of Hertfordshire countryside. Steeped in history, the house was once home to the Mountbatten family and remained as a private residence until 1969 when it became a hotel. In 1986, it was acquired by Bejerano family who are still at the helm of the business.
With more than 100 rooms, two restaurants, bars, conferencing, wedding and spa facilities as well as a swimming pool and gym, the hotel is equipped to meet every kind of business and recreational requirement.
Just as the gym plays an important role for guests who do not wish to interrupt their training regimes whilst away from home, its audio system is critical to delivering a complete experience. Fitness spaces with high quality background music reinforcement are now very much the expected standard.
Not satisfied that its e

UK - White Light has recently supplied the lighting equipment for the UK tour of The Lovely Bones.
Based on Alice Sebold’s novel, The Lovely Bones is a coming-of-age story about Susie Salmon who is observing her family from the afterlife as they try and deal with her death in different ways. Adapted by Bryony Lavery, the production is directed by Melly Still and features a lighting design by Matt Haskins.
Haskins comments: “Bryony Lavery's adaptation is a mesmerising piece of theatre that, despite its often dark subject matter, proves uplifting and cathartic. The text actually expanded and changed heavily through the rehearsal process and what emerged was a very physical, and visually experimental way of storytelling.”
As such, Haskins soon realised that he needed to have a flexible rig to respond to the new ideas as they unfolded throughout the pr

USA - 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is the ultimate special-event address, but that venue tends to be booked up at least four years in advance. So the team at Everlast Productions did the next best thing: they projection-mapped a detailed simulacrum of the presidential residence on a three-dimensional stage they constructed in the International Ballroom of the Washington, D.C. Hilton Hotel for the annual leadership event of Power Home Remodelling Group.
And it was, thanks to Everlast Productions’ use of an Avolites Ai Q3 media server as the mapping engine paired with a Tiger Touch II lighting control console and the manufacturer’s Synergy software.
“This was a huge projection event - it had to be very detailed, and it had to be built literally overnight,” says Washington Arias, Everlast Productions’ CEO, referencing the large-scale mapping project in which multip

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