Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
Doughty - Banner - from 4 July 2025

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Prohibitive Pricing - Theatre companies are warning that prohibitively high prices and uncertainty over COVID-19 are hindering their efforts to stage outdoor work this summer, with reports that some venues are hesitant to hire their spaces to theatre producers while others have withdrawn entirely. Mid-scale companies are being especially hard hit, producers are warning, with a lack of available digs also making producing shows particularly difficult to stage.
Companies including Oxford-based Creation Theatre and touring theatre group Handlebards, as well as the Association of Circus Proprietors of Great Britain, have said the knock-on effects of the pandemic are generating new challenges to booking outdoor venues. Creation Theatre is planning to stage a production of The Wi

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USA - Audio Precision has released the latest update to APx500 audio measurement software, version 6.1. With this release, AP is adding new measurement results, options, and test signals. APx software now offers the broadest set of methodologies available for detecting rub and buzz defects.
New features include: rub & buzz – Previously available in APx software, this method uses high-pass tracking filters to remove the fundamental signal and detect defects as excursions in the residual waveform’s crest factor or peak ratio; SoneTrac – A Bose-developed improvement to the Rub & Buzz, this method filters the residual signal and ratios it to the RMS of the total signal to reduce the noisiness of the measurement result; High-Order Harmonic Distortion - a classic method for rub & buzz detection, HOHD uses the THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) ratio but only of harm

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USA - The Shawnee Cave Amphitheatre, 100 miles southeast of St. Louis, bills itself as “a venue like no other.” Tucked into the base of a massive 100ft high sandstone rock formation sits in the middle of 60 rugged acres of craggy paths, creeks and waterfalls.
Kyle Curtis had a hand in creating just such memories Memorial Day weekend when he lit the site for an event featuring a line-up of jam bands that included The Infamous Stringdusters, Sam Bush, Leftover Salmon, Keller Williams, Kyle Tuttle Banjo, and Chicken Wire Empire. Enlivening the surroundings with vivid colours and making the cave wall come alive with gobo patterns, he enhanced the evocative effect of the setting without distracting from the artists on stage.
Helping him accomplish this feat was a collection of 54 Chauvet Professional fixtures supplied by Chris Parton and his team at Midwest Music Supply
LSi 40 - Banner - July-Nov 2025

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UK - dBS Solutions’ roadmap through Martin Audio’s evolutionary control technology shows no sign of abating.
In 2014 they purchased an XD/DD combination rig for deployment on a successful theatre tour. This was followed by the acquisition of a 40-box Wavefront Precision Mini (WPM) system, specifically for the Mercury at Abbey Field pop-up theatre space in Colchester. This ran for an entire outdoor season and was a direct replacement for their old Martin Audio W8LM rig.
Then in February 2020 - immediately before lockdown - two hangs of 16 WPM, supported by flown SXF115 subwoofers and DD6 front-fills, went out on the Queen Symphonic tour.
Now, the company made its first investment in Martin Audio’s more powerful WPS system. “We’ve dipped our toe in the water with a package that will enable us to provide coverage for 2,000-plus capacity concert halls,”

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Australia - Mackay Entertainment and Conference Centre (MECC) is a busy and diverse complex of nine different venue and event spaces in Mackay, central Queensland, hosting a lively mix of corporate launches and conferences to opera, music, dance, and performance shows.
Head of lighting Dan Grace and his team are amongst the first in Australia to have Robe’s new high power Forte LED luminaires in the house, with a purchase of 12 of the fixtures plus 12 new Robe Spiider LED wash beams, with more of both types of moving light to follow once the season ramps up again.
The decision to buy Fortes was underlined by MECC’s previous experiences with Robe – with nearly 100 fixtures already, including 30 x DL7s, a mix of profiles and fresnels, which directly replaced 36 hot and power-hungry 2K fresnels in the main theatre in 2019.
The last batch of these DL7s arrive

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USA - Xite Labs utilised the disguise Extended Reality (xR) workflow, powered by a gx 2c media server and rx real-time rendering platform, to bring to life a myriad of virtual worlds in Unreal Engine for rapper Bryson Tiller’s Trapsoul World Series live streamed concert.
Shot at Xite Labs’ xR stage in LA, the concert accentuated the artist’s musical vibe for fans around the world watching at home. The immersive livestream presented Tiller in a series of six different worlds linked by a narrative flowing through the songs. Xite Labs was responsible for the stunning xR content for 14 different songs performed in four virtual ‘worlds’ with distinct appearances and themes.
For this immersive experience, Xite turned to its in-house workflow, featuring a disguise gx 2c media server as the primary controller of the xR environment, while a dedicated disguise

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Japan - NBC Olympics, a division of the NBC Sports Group, has selected Xytech’s ScheduALL to provide its enterprise resource and transmission optimisation solution for its production of the Games of the XXXII Olympiad, which take place in Tokyo, Japan, from 23 July. The announcement was made by Dan Robertson, VP NBC Olympics IT, and Greg Dolan, Xytech CCO.
NBC Olympics has turned to Xytech’s ScheduALL for a ninth consecutive Olympic Games to deliver advanced enterprise resource and transmission optimisation solutions in order to coordinate the highly dynamic environment of the Games. NBC Olympics will be able to leverage the expertise of Xytech’s software and services to orchestrate the logistics of people, equipment, locations and transmission feeds.
“For the ninth consecutive Olympic Games, Xytech has the privilege of contributing to the success of NBC Olympi

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Russia - Aistenok Irkutsk Regional Puppet Theatre occupies a prominent place among Russian puppet theatres. The marionette masters in the Siberian city of Irkutsk recently worked with Light Power Design (LPD) to upgrade its stage lighting and chose low noise, low heat Elation Professional LED luminaires along with Magmatic atmospheric effects.
Despite its relative solitude, Irkutsk is a thriving seat of culture that embodies all the best of Russia’s storied theatre tradition. Puppetry applies the same lighting techniques as a regular stage. Despite the compact space, all types of lighting instruments are used and just like a regular theatre show, fixture choice depends on the effects desired and mood required.
Founded in 1935 as the first professional puppet theatre in Eastern Siberia, the Aistenok Puppet Theatre has operated from an elegant building in the heart o
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UK - Triple E has announced the launch of a new division of the organisation, EEE Build, headquartered in Biggin Hill and appointed two new senior staff members.
The last few months have seen two significant appointments – namely Darren Green joining the growing team of project managers, and Rowan Coupe as installations manager as he heads up the newly created EEE Build division of Triple E.
Both Darren and Rowan join the company with solid industry experience, and both have a considerable knowledge of working alongside Triple E in their previous roles.
Darren has a background in theatre product design, engineering and project management working at notable companies including Theatre Projects, Harkness Screens, Hall Stage and Centre Stage Engineering. Darren has worked alongside the Triple E team on many projects in the past such as Fairfield Halls in Croydon

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Poland - Harman Professional Solutions recently collaborated with Stage Source and ATM System to deliver a dynamic lighting design for Polish reality television series The Voice of Poland with new Martin MAC Aura PXL fixtures.
Part of the internationally syndicated television franchise The Voice, The Voice of Poland is a televised reality competition that gives singers the opportunity to showcase their vocal talents in front of celebrity judges and coaches on live television. First aired in 2011, the series recently filmed its eleventh season, which was hosted by actor Maciej Musiał and filmed in Warsaw.
In order to ensure premium production quality for the nationally televised series, the show’s producers hired ATM System to supply a lighting design that would deliver dynamic lighting both on stage and on camera. ATM System collaborated with d

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World - The first Virtual Showlight (VSL) event which was held on Tuesday 25 May 2021 proved to be “a real success story,” according to its organisers. With the full Showlight postponed due to the pandemic, VSL 2021 turned trial into triumph when it threw open its virtual doors to an online audience in excess of 430 delegates. Students, educational establishments, venues and of course lighting designers from all genres of the industry - theatre, film and TV, architectural and events, and more - attended from almost 50 countries, and many have since returned to re-watch the Papers through Hubilo’s On Demand service.
Delegates were treated to a diverse range of subject matters from industry professionals at the top of their game. Topics included the illumination of a lighthouse on an island in the Bahamas, lighting comic book movie Birds of Prey, the remote ligh

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USA - The ADJ team will be exhibiting at the 2021 Nightclub & Bar Show (Booth #822) scheduled to take place in Las Vegas at the end of June. The ADJ booth will showcase a variety of the company’s latest entertainment lighting products, including IP65-rated fixtures ideal for use on patios, terraces and other outdoor spaces, which are set to be more popular than ever this summer.
The 2020 edition of Nightclub and Bar, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was the first time in 30 years that ADJ hadn’t attended this annual event for the hospitality industry.
“This is the perfect time for venue owners and operators of all sizes to gear up for the summer season,” comments ADJ USA’s national sales manager, Alfred Gonzales. “Following a year of restrictions, there is a huge appetite for getting out and socialisng, but it will be locations that of

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Spain - With the introduction of new projectors and displays at ISE 2021, Panasonic offers ‘the most complete line-up of 4K visual solutions to meet growing demand for highly detailed and richly immersive viewing experiences’.
With the additions of new 4K 1-Chip DLP projectors and interactive displays, Panasonic can offer 4K solutions for ‘any environment, across all industry sectors’, with projectors from 5,000-50,000 lumens and 43-98 inch displays. The technologies are all complemented by Panasonic’s 4K collaboration solutions, including video conferencing and wireless presentation systems.
“The time is now for 4K and we are seeing increased demand across all industry sectors,” explained said Hartmut Kulessa, European marketing manager at Panasonic Business. “The entertainment world is using 4K to draw back audiences with immersive attractions, educat

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Argentina - Producer, musician, recording and mixing engineer Fede Soto Roland has recently taken delivery of an Audient ASP8024-HE console for his Negril Music Studio. Based in Buenos Aires yet inspired by the music styles of Jamaica - everything from reggae to ska and dancehall - the studio’s latest addition is the culmination of a four-year shift towards analogue and represents the beginning of a new era for Fede and his clients.
He opened the studio back in 2017. At the time his set-up was almost entirely digital. Over the years he has released over 110 songs including three well-received Spanish Tributes to Gregory Isaacs. “As I got more and more involved in the production of albums and singles however, I became more aware of the difference of having a hybrid setup. So after a few years I decided to add more hardware.”
It was whilst the world was in the grip

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USA - Keith Hoagland is not normally given to public displays of emotion. But at the start of his spotlight meeting prior to Jason Aldean’s Friday 14 May show at The Bonnaroo Farm, he admits it was difficult to avoid.
“Things got real at that meeting prior to the show,” said Hoagland, owner of CKP Lighting. “That’s when it hit me. My voice cracked and I just stopped to let it all sink in. I apologised to my crew, but they all felt the same way. It was all very emotional. We were all so happy and grateful to be back.”
It had been 14 months since Aldean and his crew had done a full production show. Now, with COVID restrictions starting to be eased, he was lighting Friday and Saturday shows at this open-air concert venue 63 miles south of Nashville.
The two shows (the second of which was also livestreamed), more than lived up to expectations, not just fo

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USA - Meyer Sound has appointed Sweetwater Sound of Fort Wayne, Indiana as a new authorised e-tailer for the company’s line of self-powered loudspeakers for music reinforcement and recording applications. As of 1 June, a selection of Meyer Sound products will be available through Sweetwater’s website and catalogue ordering channels.
“Sweetwater is the only national, internet-based retailer with the high level of in-house expertise required to represent Meyer Sound products and technologies,” says Meyer Sound senior vice president John McMahon. “Their sales engineers are not simply order-takers, but rather they are experienced professionals, many of them with extensive backgrounds in sound reinforcement. They know how to match Meyer Sound products to a customer’s requirements.”
Sweetwater’s senior director of partner marketing Arend Raby comments: “We

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USA - Almost every touring band in the last 50 years has passed through the heartland university town of Champaign, Illinois, situated midway between Indianapolis and Peoria. Many of them have performed at the Virginia Theatre, the town’s vintage venue that turns 100 years old this year.
The Virginia recently got an appropriate birthday gift in the form of an L-Acoustics Kara II sound system, designed by Threshold Acoustics, purchased through L-Acoustics certified provider distributor Mid-America Sound, and installed by Knox-Array Event Production.
Steadily renovated over the past 20 years by nearly $10m in state grants, private contributions, commercial sponsorships, and large donations, the venue now sports completely updated power, infrastructure, and trim that extends to its ornate plaster and the classic 700-pipe Wurlitzer organ originally installed in 1921 to l

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UK - Specialist audio and entertainment technology recruitment business Interfacio has been honoured with a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for International Trade, recognising a period of significant and sustained growth in the company’s international business.
Commenting on the award, founder and MD Richard Wear says: "We are extremely honoured to be receiving this award and would like to acknowledge the hard work and commitment shown by our whole team in delivering consistent results for our clients and candidates around the world in what continues to be a fast-changing and often challenging market."
Now in its 55th year, the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise are the most prestigious business awards in the UK, and Interfacio is one of only 205 organisations to be recognised in 2021. The Award for International Trade recognises a period of continuous growth

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USA - Altman Lighting has hired two new sales representatives. Jon Hyrkas will serve as the new Western regional sales manager, and Jake Rhodes will serve as product sales specialist.
As the Western regional sales manager, Hyrkas will be representing sales in Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.
“I’ve been working in theatre and entertainment for 15 years. I’m really excited to connect people with some of the new exciting products we are launching,” says Hyrkas.
“I want to make sure I get the right product in front of the right people, for the right purpose,” says Rhodes.
"As the industry begins to emerge from a very difficult time, we are working hard to ensure that we are hiring sales leaders

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South Africa - Technological Innovations Group (TIG) has appointed Dewald Adendorff as technical support engineer for Crestron in South Africa.
Dewald will be responsible for providing technical advice to Crestron customers, ensuring their exact needs are firmly met, as well as assisting the regional sales team.
Rupert Denoon, TIG's regional sales director for Crestron in Southern Africa, comments: "Congratulations and welcome to the team, Dewald! We're excited to benefit from Dewald's experience, technical mindset and results-driven approach, and to pass this on to our valued customers here in South Africa."
Dewald adds: "I am extremely excited to join such a world-class brand. No matter where I've been, Crestron has always been part of conversations, and now I am ready to start the journey here and contribute to the success story in South Africa."

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Europe - Attracting a high number of attendees in April, Yamaha’s online New Technology Showcase revealed the company’s latest professional audio technologies.
A key announcement was the launch of AFC Enhance and AFC Image, immersive audio technologies which ‘radically enhance live performances, interactive installations, projection mapping and other experiential events’. The launch event is now available to view on YouTube, where the details of these developments are showcased.
Hosted on Facebook Live, the New Technology Showcase was presented by a global team of Yamaha’s professional audio specialists, including key members from the company’s Japan headquarters, US and EU research and development teams, immersive audio specialists and loudspeaker manufacturer Nex
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