Details

08 July 2024

UK - 2B Heard has announced its partnership with Naostage. 2B Heard will now offer Naostage's products to a broader market covering live events, theatres and entertainment venues.

"We are excited to collaborate with Naostage and bring their ground-breaking technology to our customers," said Sam Nankivell, director of 2B Heard. "Our commitment to providing the best in audio-visual solutions aligns perfectly with Naostage's vision of enhancing live performances through advanced automation. This partnership will allow us to offer unparalleled tracking solutions that elevate the quality and creativity of live events across the UK."

“Naostage represents an exciting concept of merging innovation into the creative process, allowing us to work with visual and audio concepts simultaneously,” says Sam Nankivell, director of 2B Heard. “The system, backed

Details

08 July 2024

Italy - Outline has entered into a distribution agreement for Italy with Audio Link, the Parma-based pro audio distribution company.

"Integrating Outline solutions into our portfolio, Audio Link can now offer a complete, highly-trusted audio signal chain of utmost quality and long-term value – with links by DiGiCo, Optocore, Sound Devices, Klang, TiMax, and Waves, to name but a few," says Federico Bianchi, Audio Link's general manager.

"Backed by Audio Link's undisputed tech support, Italian rental operators of any magnitude can now finally turn the superior audio performance of Outline solutions into a strategic advantage – in the entertainment, business and lifestyle events sectors", says Fernando Rey Méndez, Outline's sales director.

Details

08 July 2024

UK - Former Britain’s Got Talent contestant Calum Scott is back on the road in 2024 with a new campaign, The Songbook So Far, a world tour, which is playing larger venues than before for headliner shows, together with a run of high-profile festival slots reflecting his ever-growing fanbase.

A new lighting rig for the tour was created and specified by LD Elliot Baines of Spiralstagelighting. Elliot has been working with the artist since summer 2022, initially as the lighting operator, and was then asked to design lighting for this new tour, for which he specified 30 x Robe Esprite and 54 x Spikies which are being supplied for the UK full production shows by Hampshire-based Liteup.

Calum’s management wanted fresh and different styling for this tour, so Elliot presented an eye-catching design that was scalable and highly practical to tour a

Details

08 July 2024

Sweden - “Our goal is to continuously foster innovation, creativity, and inspiration,” says Camilla Fritz, head of concert operations at Jönköping Konsert & Kongress. “With our new L Series professional sound system, we can offer a first-class audio experience for all visitors, whether they are attending a conference or enjoying a concert.

Formerly Elmia Konsert & Kongress, the venue was renovated and rebranded before reopening in November of last year. The renovation was a collaboration between JKPG Fast which owns the property, Elmia, and Destination Jönköping which manages the space. Together. they ensured that the renewed venue was focused on enhancing the experience for both business and cultural events.

The L-Acoustics L Series concert sound system marks a significant milestone in the ongoing transformation of Jönköping Kons

Details

08 July 2024

Thailand - Powersoft has announced its participation in InfoComm Asia 2024. This marks the first time Powersoft will independently exhibit at the event. Show attendees can explore all the latest Powersoft technologies, including the new Maritime Kit for Unica amplifiers, Dolby Atmos Connect patching, the latest updates to its MyUniverso cloud and more, in Bangkok from 17 to 19 July.

First shown at InfoComm Las Vegas, Powersoft will introduce to the Asian market the new Maritime Kit for its all-in-one Unica amplifier platform, designed specifically for use on cruise ships and other marine vessels. Following rigorous testing to ensure compliance with key marine safety standards (IEC 60945 and IACS E10), the Maritime Kit, comprising an external A/C filter kit with ferrite components, offers robust performance and high-quality audio in maritime environments, add

Details

05 July 2024

Poland - The award-winning Opera Baltycka (Baltic Opera) in Gdansk, on Poland’s north coast, has invested in new Robe lighting fixtures with the purchase of 18 x TX1 PosiProfiles and four Paintes which have been installed into its current building.

The opera house has a colourful and varied history and was originally built and opened as an equestrian sports hall in 1915. It went through various other iterations, and the first opera was performed there in 1950, and since then the building has undergone several renovations. While the cozy 476 capacity makes it Poland’s smallest opera hall, The Baltic Opera has a formidable reputation for excellence, high production values and world class performances.

Lighting specialist Marek Lebida has been working full time at the Opera since the Robe fixtures arrived last year, supplied by Robe’s Polish distr

Details

05 July 2024

Vietnam - The recently opened ADM Club in Da Nang is one of the biggest bars in Vietnam. Luxuriously appointed, the venue hosts a wide variety of performances, from international DJ sets and laser shows to some of the country’s leading live acts, including Trinh Thang Binh, Lam Chan Huy and Chau Khai Phong. ADM’s investment in its audio and lighting provision reflects its determination to set the highest standards.

Experienced integrator Viet KTV Electronics Company of Hanoi was engaged to supply and install a Coda Audio system for the venue and chose the company’s flagship AiRAY line array as the centrepiece. A total of 20 pieces of AiRAY were complemented by nine SCP dual 18” sensor-controlled subwoofers and four SC2-F dual 15” sensor controlled bass extensions. The system is driven by six Coda Audio Linus14 and one Linus10C DSP amplifiers.

Details

05 July 2024

UK - Theatre Lighting Design: Conversations on the Art, Craft and Life, a new book offering fascinating insights into the design processes, work and lighting lives of 14 leading lighting designers, will launch on 25 July 2024 – and is available to pre-order now.

Written by lighting designers Emma Chapman and Rob Halliday, the book features individual interviews with lighting designers Neil Austin, Natasha Chivers, Jon Clark, Paule Constable, Rick Fisher, Richard Howell, Howard Hudson, Jessica Hung Han Yun, Mark Jonathan, Amy Mae, Ben Ormerod, Bruno Poet, Jackie Shemesh and Johanna Town.

A final interview talks to the lighting team responsible for creating the hit musical Billy Elliot about how the lighting design evolved as the show was created and then how it has been maintained as the show has been remounted over the last 18 yea

Details

05 July 2024

Belgium - “The atmosphere during a concert in a theatre hall is very different from that at a festival or in an arena,” Tourist LeMC said at the start of his Onrust tour. That is why the Flemish hip-hop-folk artist eschewed his usual venues and built this 23-show tour around more intimate theatres.

Communicating with the audience was critical to Tourist LeMC’s vision for this tour.  Building on the theme of his recent hit The Other, he wanted to emphasise the importance of people overcoming the boundaries that separate them, an especially important ideal in times like these.

Setting a supportive tone for Tourist LeMC on this tour was an engaging, intimate lighting design by Maarten De Man of MDM Productions that featured Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Splendit.

“This was the very first time that Tourist LeMC playe

Details

05 July 2024

Thailand - Kantana Post Production, part of the Kantana Group, has unveiled its new studio space featuring an ICVFX VP LED Volume - the largest VP LED stage in Thailand. This facility, delivering HDR-quality, lifelike visuals using Brompton Technology processing and Pixreal LED panels, offers a turnkey solution that provides an immersive cinematic experience for the studio's users.

Featuring a variety of industry-leading brands like ARRI, Disguise, Unreal Engine, and StYpe, the LED Volume is made up of Pixreal’s Black Gold Standard Avatar series and ENZO panels, powered by Brompton’s 4K Tessera SX40 LED processors and Tessera XD 10G data distribution units.

The main LED wall, built as a giant U-shape with a four-degree concave format and a diameter of over 15m, consists of over 560 Avatar2.3 panels LED tiles. Additionally, 188 Pixreal Enzo3.9 pan

Details

05 July 2024

Belgium - The Royal Conservatory of Antwerp recently undertook the transition from conventional to LED lighting with a lighting system upgrade that features Elation KL and Fuze series luminaires. The new lighting system, supplied by Ampco Flashlight, supports a large variety of projects that play out on stages in several of the school’s performance spaces.

The Royal Conservatory is renowned for its excellence in music, dance, and drama, attracting students of the performing arts from across Europe and beyond. Like any institution of advanced learning, the school provides high-quality facilities for its various programs and seeks to keep them updated with the latest technologies and resources to ensure a top-tier educational experience.

Seeking an up-to-date lighting package for the Conservatory’s many performance spaces, Rik Suijs, technician at

Details

05 July 2024

Germany - On the back of a successful exhibition at Euro Cine Expo 2024, Astera received the Best of Show award conferred by film-tv-video.de. The award was given for Astera’s new addition to its lighting portfolio: the LunaBulb, launched at the beginning of June. The win follows on from their previous success last year, in 2023, when Astera was shortlisted for their PlutoFresnel.

The LunaBulb mimics the appearance of a traditional bulb, but incorporates all the benefits of LED technology, meaning a lower power draw and full wireless control with incredible levels of precision when adjusting colour and brightness. With a focus on technological and design innovation, Best in Show judges were particularly impressed with how the LunaBulb granted gaffers both the creative and practical potential of a traditional and mainstay lighting solution, but incorporated

Details

04 July 2024

Austria - ARRI Rental has announced the expansion of its service offerings in Vienna with the opening of a new facility supplying lighting and grip equipment as well as logistics to productions of all types and sizes. Camera equipment will continue to be offered through the existing ARRI Rental Vienna office.

Located at 7 Haidequerstraße 6, 1110 Wien, the new ARRI Rental facility is located on the premises of the hq7 studios complex, which will open this summer as a premiere European production centre, capable of accommodating major international film and TV productions. The area is ideal for easy access to the airport, central station, and city centre.

ARRI Rental’s new Vienna facility covers 750sq.m of floor space and can supply lighting and grip equipment, including the latest ARRI lighting fixtures such as SkyPanel X and Orbiter, as well as AR

Details

04 July 2024

UK/USA - Stage Precision, has announced its 2024 schedule of education training days. The sessions, open to users from a variety of industries and taking place in locations in both the UK and USA, cater for both complete newcomers to Stage Precision software, and those who have previously completed a Core Skills workshop in the past.

“Training is important to us,” confirms Kevin Li, technical solutions specialist at Stage Precision. “Not only does it help us to spread the knowledge of software such as SP and grow our user base, but it also creates an opportunity for Stage Precision to develop the skills of our users and strengthen our community.”

SP by Stage Precision is the brand’s most popular product, a ‘Swiss Army knife’ that can be integrated with leading production technology to unify workflows on even the most complex projects. H

Details

04 July 2024

UK - The Marshall Amplification headquarters in Milton Keynes recently expanded to incorporate the recording studio, record label and live agency service. The space features a world class, 250-capacity live performance space, from which artists can record and prepare for live shows.

“Marshall started because artists needed amps,” says studio manager Adam Beer. “And 60 years on, we asked ourselves what modern artists need. This led us to found a record label, a live agency, and now a recording studio to enable up-and-coming artists to access the resources needed to become successful musicians.”

It was crucial to the Marshall team to retain a live element in the studio. “In this live space, we host events, album launch parties, and performances from visiting artists. Our sound system needs to reflect the high quality of the building and the w

Details

04 July 2024

UK - Situated close to the O2 Arena and Excel Exhibition centre in London, Crowne Plaza Docklands is a 210-bedroom hotel featuring the brand’s new Fremantle Bar & Restaurant concept. Creating the Australasian-inspired all-day restaurant involved a significant recent upgrade to existing audio infrastructure, a project tasked to Uxbridge-based AV specialist Middlesex Sound.

Briefed to deliver a high-quality, zoned audio system that met the hotel’s specific aesthetic requirements, Middlesex Sound supplied and installed a turnkey solution from Optimal Audio.

Director Darrel Olivier explains, “There were four separate zones we needed to cater for - the main bar, the restaurant, a private dining area and terrace. It was very important to deliver consistent, high-quality audio across the spaces, so we employed 16 Optimal Audio Cuboid 6 speakers wh

Details

04 July 2024

Europe - Front-of-house engineer Burton Ishmael found himself at the helm of one of the largest concert audiences in history.

On Madonna’s Celebration world tour, Ishmael’s technical prowess and creative vision were put to the test. Madonna’s discography spans over 40 years, requiring much more than a one-size-fits-all approach. With a long list of hit songs with different sonic signatures recorded all over the world, the goal was to stay true to each record while providing a cohesive experience.

Enter the Avid Venue | S6L. Captivated by its versatility and intuitive interface, he found in the S6L a platform that not only complemented his workflow but also ‘elevated his sonic palette’. With its onboard plugins processing power, and seamless integration with his preferred outboard gear, the S6L became an indispensable tool in his arsenal.

Details

04 July 2024

Europe - Holoplot has released the latest version of its sound system design software, Plan 2.0. The release introduces a cornerstone of the company’s second-generation software capabilities, kicked off by a major upgrade to its operating system, OS2.0, earlier in the year.

While OS2.0 enhances Holoplot’s core technology, Plan2.0 is now giving users access to new features and enhancements within the sound system design software itself. A new user interface and workflow improvements make designing and simulating sound systems more intuitive and efficient than ever.

“Holoplot Plan serves as the gateway to Holoplot's revolutionary technology. Our unmatched steering capabilities provide previously inaccessible levels of sound control, allowing you to precisely tailor your system design, which can be visualized inside the software,” says Adele Gar

Details

04 July 2024

Canada - PK Sound, in partnership with ACT Entertainment, the brand’s exclusive North American distributor, has announced its forthcoming Tx Series of intelligent, multipurpose point-source modules as a complement to its line of robotic line arrays.

Fully configured and controlled via PK.dynamics software, the Tx Series rounds out PK Sound’s Trinity range of robotic line source solutions to provide integrators and customers with a comprehensive solution for mobile and installed applications. Included among the compatible audio equipment is the T8 robotic line source system, the newest, compact option in the industry’s first robotically controlled line source family.

“There are plenty of great loudspeakers out there, but PK systems enable users to overcome the unique acoustic challenges of virtually any environment,” shares James Oliver, chi

Details

04 July 2024

UK - OIKLA has announced the release of Perception, an audio hearing protection algorithm designed for Remora PRO. Leveraging the advanced capabilities of Sonical’s embedded operating system, CosmOS, Perception marks a ‘monumental leap’ in preserving auditory health while delivering unparalleled audio experiences through headphones and all other ear-worn products, says the company.

With the integration of Perception, Remora PRO ‘guarantees optimal sound quality and user well-being in any listening environment’. “In the light of recent data from the World Health Organisation that brings to our attention the huge number of hearing issues being uncovered, in particular with younger listeners, we believe everyone should be protecting their hearing,” says OIKLA.

OIKLA’s Perception technology seamlessly blends two powerful features to provi