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13 May 2025

USA - Lenny Kravitz is currently on the US leg of his Blue Electric Light tour, which kicked off in Europe in June 2024 in support of his twelfth studio album. Sound Image, a Clair Global brand, is supplying a control package for the tour that includes two DiGiCo Quantum852 consoles for veteran FOH engineer Laurie Quigley and monitor engineer Josh Mellott, two SD-Racks, and six SD-MiNi Racks, plus three Fourier Audio transform.engine platforms.

Mellott is something of a DiGiCo whisperer. He has been touring with Kravitz for 14 years, initially as a monitor tech before getting behind an SD7 to mix, and previously worked on DiGiCo desks with Crosby, Stills & Nash on tour and at Sound Image’s shop in Southern California. “I was the code writer for all the socket files for any tours that were still using D5 and D1 consoles,” he says. Over the

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13 May 2025

UK - Follow-Me has announced the opening of its new meeting space and demonstration room in the heart of London's Soho district. Located within the technically advanced Underbelly Boulevard Soho, the facility will serve as a hub for designers, operators, and potential Follow-Me users to experience the system's capabilities firsthand.

The new demo space will be overseen by Luke Edwards, designer relations liaison UK at Follow-Me, who will be available on-site to provide demonstrations, consultations, and system training on request.

Underbelly Boulevard Soho - the first permanent location from the live entertainment company Underbelly - provides a suitable technical environment for showcasing Follow-Me's remote follow-spot and performer tracking technology. With convenient access to public transportation, the space is positioned to become a central mee

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13 May 2025

Belgium - Ten high-profile theatrical venues in the French-speaking region of Belgium - a multilingual European powerhouse for arts, culture, music, entertainment and diversity with a penchant for creativity – have received delivery of a major order of Robe lighting products comprising 13 different fixture types, totalling 1043 units.

This achievement has been co-ordinated by the Belgian office of Robe’s Benelux distributor, Controllux, led by Mattias Ternoot in conjunction with Guillaume Canart of Nivelles-based integration and installation specialist, Inytium.

It is the biggest single deal for lighting fixtures delivered by Controllux Belgium, and the project is part of the drive to convert all venues in Belgium from conventional light sources to LED to enhance sustainability and reduce operational overheads and power consumption.

Six o

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13 May 2025

UK - Founded in 2019, Adventure Cinema is the UK’s biggest open-air cinema tour and enjoys success delivering the magic of the movies to audiences across more than 70 prestigious venues. Medieval castles and picturesque country estates all play host to a mix of classics, musicals, blockbusters, and family films, delivered by Adventure Cinema’s experienced teams.

With premium picture quality as standard, powerful, quality audio is absolutely essential to provide an exciting immersive audience experience. Since its inception, Adventure Cinema has invested exclusively in HK Audio systems, and recently contacted UK distributor Polar about expanding its inventory to include HK Audio’s Cosmo line array.

As demand for Adventure Cinema’s service has grown, so the size of its audiences has steadily increased, with more than 200,000 tickets sold at ven

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13 May 2025

South Africa - As part of Nike’s annual Air Max Day celebrations this year, Method x Madness studio in Johannesburg hosted a pop-up Dolby Atmos listening experience featuring a 7.1.4 monitor layout and Audient Oria. The event gave listeners the chance to hear each of the performing artists’ new music in Dolby Atmos - mixed by the studio - whilst finding out more about the newest Air Max Dn8 shoe.

Taking place in the old Sheriff’s building, the compact listening setup comprised the Oria immersive audio interface and monitor controller and Genelec speakers. Rici from Method x Madness studio described the setup as “nice and lean. The Genelec 9301 has digital AES audio out, so Oria was the perfect audio interface to finish off the setup and make everything integrate really smoothly.”

Nike took over five venues in the Braamfontein area

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13 May 2025

Europe - TAFtool 5.0 is TAF’s latest version of its advanced software that allows you to build 3D structures in a virtual environment with TAF products and with real-world dimensions - all on your own computer.

Try out your new ideas. Create bespoke or custom projects. Enjoy standard/profile/top views of your structure, rotate the camera angle, zoom in, zoom out. Save your progress for later. When done, export to PDF with a list of all products and dimensions for requesting an accurate price quote from TAF.

TAFtool 5.0 comes with many improvements that includes a more polished interface, refined icons, a larger library of TAF products and support structures, weight added to 3D elements, bug fixes, and much more.

A new feature allows you to upload what TAF products you currently have in stock and use them to build your virtual structure. The

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13 May 2025

UK - Bold colours, deep blacks and moving set pieces are brought to life in Muriel’s Wedding the Musical – the stage adaptation of PJ Hogan’s 1994 film – whose just-wrapped UK premiere at the Curve theatre in Leicester featured a striking video-led design powered by over 400 LED panels from INFiLED’s DBmk2 Series.

Designed by Andrzej Goulding, the production blends theatrical storytelling with a playful, modern aesthetic, featuring oversized mobile phone frames, animated graphics and vivid, Australian-inspired visuals. To realise Goulding’s creative vision, the technical team needed an LED solution capable of delivering deep contrast, faithful colour reproduction at low brightness, and seamless integration with the physical set.

INFiLED’s DBmk2 Series, with its 10,000:1 contrast ratio and matte black surface, proved ideal for t

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13 May 2025

UK - Brompton Technology has announced the appointment of Steve Leyland as its new chairman of the board.

Leyland’s appointment follows the resignation of Brompton’s previous Chairman, Neil Gaydon, for health reasons. Neil joined at the time of Brompton receiving investment from specialist private equity provider Connection Capital in 2022 and has played a central role in developing Brompton’s growth strategy. “We are very grateful to Neil for all his support and wish him the very best,” says Richard Mead, Brompton’s CEO.

A seasoned executive and respected voice in the AV industry, Leyland brings with him decades of international leadership experience, including senior roles at Barco, Polycom, and Intel, and a proven track record of driving growth and strategic transformation across global markets. Leyland currently runs a consulting prac

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13 May 2025

USA - Situated in West Sacramento, CA, Sutter Health Park - home to the River Cats baseball team and ‘A’s’ (Athletics) - has undergone a major infrastructure upgrade for the coming season, designed to enhance the fan experience and improve game-day technology.

This includes a strategically enhanced sound system for the bowl - based around Martin Audio CDD and SX subwoofer components, as well as process-controlled amplification from Focusrite sister brand, Linea Research, in the 14,000-cap arena.

The River Cats had acknowledged that their 25-year-old system badly needed enhancing. Locally based Martin Audio partner, Sacramento Production Services (SACPS) - who have a long history in servicing the facility - were brought in, initially to project manage for a third party before later being handed the full role of system integrator, as the time fra

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13 May 2025

China - Arts and theatre education within schools in Hong Kong continues to play a vital role in student development. Professional lighting in school settings is particularly prominent and represents a substantial market, driven in part by the many festivals and competitions focused on theatre studies held across the education system.

Recently, LXR Theatre Technology, a specialist in theatre and entertainment solutions, selected Luci Della Ribalta (LDR) lighting products to equip the auditorium of the Hong Kong Taoist Association Wun Tsuen School, a junior secondary school.

Among its key facilities is a fully equipped auditorium, designed with a standard 24-channel configuration and a high-performance lighting system tailored to support both educational and stage performance needs.

“Theatre is undoubtedly an important element in Hong Kong

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13 May 2025

India - Sangit Kala Mandir is one of Kolkata’s premier cultural institutions, committed to promoting the arts and music by hosting an entertaining and varied year-round programme of events. Founded by the eminent Indian industrialist Basan Kumar Birla, the not-for-profit institution has grown steadily over decades to promote creative freedom and provide a platform for aspiring young minds to showcase their talents and cultural expression.

Technical provision for the venue’s 1000 capacity Birla Auditorium was recently upgraded to meet the expanding requirements of its multi-faceted programme. Amongst the improvements was a new audio system which replaced its existing outdated and underpowered PA.

A team combining the expertise of Sun Media Ventures, headed by AV system design consultant Mr Umesh Bhagwan, and Star Professional Audio and Alphatec, g

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13 May 2025

Europe/USA - Showstop Procedure courses have welcomed 125 event professionals since launching with The Pink Bows Foundation in the US at Houston Texas in March, followed by sessions in the UK and Denmark. 

Course Facilitators Mark Hamilton and Steve Allen delivered two accredited Showstop Procedure courses, hosted by Roskilde Festival, 10-11 May. They welcomed attendees from across Europe including Paleo Festival and Engage Festival. The next (sold-out) courses will run in Dublin (Ireland) and Glasgow (Scotland) in the coming weeks, with future courses scheduled from September being announced shortly.

Steve Allen comments: “The overwhelmingly positive feedback we’ve received from highly respected industry safety and production specialists, along with all of the courses selling out, has been humbling. We’ve updated th

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13 May 2025

UK - Absen has sharpened its UK ProAV focus with three new strategic hires. This move – designed to fuel the company’s ambitious regional growth plans – reinforces its dedication to localised service and strong relationships across Europe. The reinforced UK division also underscores its pledge to provide advanced LED solutions and exceptional service throughout the UK. Joining the UK Absen team are:

Peter Mytton-Bayley – business development executive: With 30 years of experience in consultant and strategic roles within the AV sector, including significant work in corporate and education installations,

Peter joins Absen’s UK team to support its expanding market presence. He will leverage his extensive industry knowledge to drive the adoption of Absen LED in upcoming projects and champion Absen's commitment to sustainability through its Abse

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13 May 2025

Copyright Matters - The government has suffered another setback in the House of Lords over its plans to let artificial intelligence firms use copyright-protected work without permission. Yesterday (Monday), an amendment to the data bill requiring AI companies to reveal which copyrighted material is used in their models was backed by peers, despite government opposition. It is the second time parliament’s upper house has demanded tech companies make clear whether they have used copyright-protected content.

The vote came days after hundreds of artists and organisations including Paul McCartney, Jeanette Winterson, Dua Lipa and the Royal Shakespeare Company urged the Prime Minister not to “give our work away at the behest of a handful of powerful overseas tech companies”. The amendment was tabled by crossbench peer Beeban Kidron and was passed by 272 vote

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12 May 2025

Australia/USA - The Freedman Group, parent company of audio brands including Rode, Mackie, Aphex, SoundField, and Event Electronics, has announced the acquisition of US manufacturer of professional wireless audio systems Lectrosonics.

Founded in 1971 and headquartered in New Mexico, USA, Lectrosonics has been at the forefront of UHF wireless audio technology for film, broadcast, and high-end theatre applications for over five decades. The company received an Academy Award in 2017 for its revolutionary Digital Hybrid Wireless Technology – further cementing its status as the gold standard in professional wireless audio and the equipment of choice for audio professionals worldwide.

"We are thrilled to welcome Lectrosonics to The Freedman Group family," said Peter Freedman, founder and owner of The Freedman Group. "For decades, Lectrosonics has been sy

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12 May 2025

UK – The Theatres Trust reports that it has been able to support 21 ambitious theatres with vital projects that will ensure these important cultural spaces can continue to serve their local communities for many years to come.

In the eighth round of the Small Grants Programme with The Linbury Trust, 21 community theatres received grants of up to £5,000 to support vitally important projects.

The vast array of projects funded in this round illustrates the many ways that theatres are keen to improve their buildings to welcome wider audiences and host a broader range of performances and activities.

Arts Centre Washington in Sunderland, Barn Theatre in Welwyn Garden City, Corn Exchange in Newbury, Little Angel Theatre in London, The Place Theatre in Bedford, and The Y Centre in Leicester receive funding for projects to improve their acc

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12 May 2025

UK - The owner of Bear Bright Studios, Luke Edwards is lighting multi-Grammy winner Jacob Collier's global Djesse tour.

When asked which colours are dominant in his tour design, Edwards simply said "all of them". His pithy answer makes sense, considering that the tour he's lighting covers his client's widely celebrated four-volume Djesse album, a 50-song opus that weaves myriad musical influences, including contributions from stars like John Mayer and Chris Martin, into a captivating whirlwind of sounds.

"While I usually follow a rule of using no more than two colours on stage, working with Jacob led me to break that mould," said Edwards. "Each of the four albums in this collection is associated with its own distinct colour. For this production, we embraced all four colours simultaneously, creating a vibrant and dynamic visual exper

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12 May 2025

UK – Area Four is returning to the Royal Armouries on 13-24 May. Stands R-D18 & R-D19 will feature the latest from the Area Four Industries brands including Milos, Litec, Prolyte, Xstage and the full range of EXE Technology chain hoists.

There's also the opportunity to get hands-on with Exe Load Cells where Matt Millward, head of automation will be available to discuss your requirements and show you more around the global interest in our new wireless load monitoring solutions from EXE Technology.

With increased demand following ISE and Prolight + Sound, learn more about the global interest in EXE Flexa sensors. Offered in four load cell management platforms, EXE Cell wired LC-Pro & LC-NLP and EXE Flexa wireless Real-Time and Dynamic. There will also be a wide selection of EXE hoists on demo.

A4I UK's head of automation, Matt Millwar

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12 May 2025

South Africa - DWR Distribution has announced the addition of Kyle Freemantle, a senior audio engineer and systems engineer, to the sales team in the role of solution architect.

In this position, Kyle will lead the design of technical solutions, deliver presentations and live demonstrations to clients, address technical challenges within DWR proposals to clients, and play a key role in shaping sales strategies from project inception to completion.

Kyle is no stranger to the South African live events industry. A freelancer since 2013, he has worked on some of the country’s most prominent shows and events. Now, for the first time in his career, Kyle is stepping into a permanent position.

“We are truly honoured to have Kyle join our team,” says Duncan Riley of DWR. “His experience and fresh perspectives will greatly benefit our clients,

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12 May 2025

Switzerland - Mendrisio is a small town in southern Switzerland that’s home to the FoxTown Factory Stores, the first factory outlet centre in Southern Europe. Opened in 1995, FoxTown is far from a typical factory outlet. Covering 30,000sq.m with more than 160 stores, bars, restaurants, a play area, and even a casino, FoxTown is a shopping and entertainment destination. As the centre’s management team planned an expansion in 2022, they conceived a bold idea for a new entertainment experience: The Sense Gallery, Switzerland’s first multisensory museum.

The Sense Gallery was brought to life in January 2023 under the visionary leadership of Luca Gambardella. Tasked with creating an immersive and modern digital space for FoxTown, Gambardella envisioned a fusion of science and art designed to engage the senses and provoke reflection.