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USA - Fast rising country star Justin Moore set a real challenge on his recent US tour, with venues ranging from state/county fairs up to 20,000-seat arena shows.

For production designer Sooner Routhier (of SRae Productions) and touring lighting director Aaron Luke it was a case of developing easily portable, truckable and scalable scenography that was quick to rig and derig.

Sooner also lights stages for Motley Crue to Bon Jovi and it was on a previous tour with the latter that she started using GLP's popular impression X4 heads, quickly sensing the speed of the fixture and the number of beam shapes that could be achieved using the pixel patterns. "I needed a good wash light to generate effects that would give each song a different look - and GLP impressions seemed to be the perfect fit."

And so she approached long-term vendor SES from North Carolina for a simi

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World - American punk rockers Fall Out Boy are on a world tour in support of their American Beauty/American Psycho album with a perspective-bending lighting design by Robb Jibson using Clay Paky Mythos and A.leda B-EYE K20 fixtures.

Robb Jibson - who serves as lighting and show designer for the tour - is using the highly advanced beam and spot light hybrid, Mythos, for effects, backlight, in delay systems and even as follow spots. With them, he projects dynamic aerial effects out across the audience, creates collimated looks and washes areas with vibrant colour.

"Clay Paky has created a really bright fixture in the Mythos," says Jibson. "It has a small footprint that's easy on both weight and power consumption and there isn't a better optical system out there in my opinion. I think its best feature is the ability to have it in a 20° to 30° beam

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Germany - Live production and rental company, Feedback Show Systems, has added a Solid State Logic L500 Plus live console to its audio inventory.

Feedback Show Systems is one of Germany's leading production and rental companies, with a solid reputation for excellence. The company offers a full range of production services to high-end musicals, touring shows, and corporate events, and also provides a comprehensive dry hire service.

Feedback's first project with the L500 at FOH was the touring version of Shrek - The Musical. The show involved more than 20 dancers, a large band, and over 130 different scenes. Feedback's managing director, Bernd Schmitz, commented, "Switching to the L500 was straightforward and fast. The console met all of the very complex functional requirements of the show, and the sonic improvement was obvious to everybody.

"We produce enc

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UK - The fast expanding Botanist chain of music-led bar/restaurants, the brainchild of operators The New World Trading Company, recently opened its latest outlet in Marlow, Bucks.

Cheshire-based music consultants Genre Music, who have overseen all previous six Botanists (as well as the other venues in the operators' 12-strong portfolio), managed the installation of Martin Audio's new CDD installation range loudspeakers - specified on the recommendation of their sub-contractors F1 Sound Co.

Explained Genre Music MD, Steven Walter, "While we handle all the operators' music requirements and book their live acts, we bring in technical experts for the sound system installations, working in conjunction with several partner companies; in the south, this is F1 Sound Co."

The Whitstable-based pro-audio specialists, run by Matt Bate and Sam Liston, have long been fans of

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USA - Winter Jam Tour Spectacular, Christian music's largest annual tour, has returned to the road with lighting provided by Bandit Lites. Artists this year include For King and Country, Matthew West, Crowder, Lauren Daigle, Red and Newsong.

Production manager Jerry Holcomb worked with Bandit's project manager Matt King and business development officer Brent Barrett to make the 360 degree stage lighting design a reality. "Brent and Matt always help me achieve my vision and design to actual workable rigging plots and fixture patch," said Holcomb. "We even set up a couple days at their Nashville location to pre-program and get ready for the tour."

"We appreciate the opportunity to work with Jerry each year from his initial concept through the finished product," said Barrett. "Jerry's temperament along with his experience and knowledge promote

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UK - Central Presentations Ltd (CPL) delivered full production, including lighting, sound - featuring brand new d&b Y8s and V-SUBS - video and rigging to an impressive end of year party for technology designer / manufacturer Dyson - which was staged in the grounds of Bowood House in Wiltshire, where a large elegant Trispan marquee was giving a 45m deep and wide party space.

CPL have been the event's technical supplier for the last five years, and there's always an exciting and ambitious brief to be fulfilled from production company Bright. This year their production designer and technical manager was Nick Diacre who liaised closely with CPL's PM Mike Radford.

Luminescence was the theme of this year's event, putting a big emphasis on lighting and visual presentation and treatment of the whole environment.

CPL flew a 10m diameter circular truss in the middle of the m

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USA - Multi Latin Grammy-winner Fonseca has been described as one of the easiest artists to like and one of the most difficult to categorize. Colombian born and educated at Boston's Berklee College of Music, the singer-guitarist, who now lives in Miami, began his career in rock. As he evolved as an artist, his music grew to include elements of Colombian 'Tropipop', as well as a variety of other sounds from ranchera to salsa and even classical.

Lighting designer Churry Lafuente reflects Fonseca's diverse musical message in light on the artist's current Conexión tour, thanks to some help from a collection of Chauvet Professional fixtures provided by rental company Línea Estratégica.

Churry, who began designing for the international superstar almost three years ago during the Ilusión tour, created an intense, bright and very flexible rig for the multi-national tour, w

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USA - Located in Houston, Texas, the Alley Theatre is a nationally recognized performing arts company that creates a wide range of innovative productions. Recently undergoing a $46.5m renovation which included improvements to the Hubbard Theatre, associate director for design Kevin Rigdon was asked to also serve as the principal designer for the project.

Working with theatrical consultants Bill Connor & Associates as well as Philips Strand Lighting aauthorized dealer StageLight, Rigdon was tasked with creating a more intimate relationship between the audience and the actors on stage, and he did so using 68 Showline SL PAR 155 ZOOM LED luminaires.

"During the renovation, we actually changed the configuration of the theatre which created two zones of house lighting, said Rigdon. "We were committed to using LED lighting technology for the power consumption and heat ad

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Europe - The European Intellitix team attended the company's Europe 2016 conference in Groningen, NL, earlier this month, before attending Eurosonic Nooderslag.

Eric Janssen, Intellitix chief revenue officer, operating from the company's global head office chaired the three-day meeting, with a full day of product overview and software updates imparted by the company's chief product officer, Barna Jardany. Attending were representatives from the UK, Czech Republic, Scandinavia, France, Belgium, Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, with colleagues from Canada and Brazil.

Adding to operations manager Carl AH Martin's experience working across the European live events and venues sectors in the UK are Gavin Barnard, director of partnerships (UK Intellitix) and Gareth Deakin, director of business development (UK Intellitix). Gavin's eight years combined digital a

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Germany - Post-production facility Rotor Film has installed a 69-loudspeaker Meyer Sound cinema system in its recently opened mixing stage - the largest in Europe that offers both Dolby Atmos and Auro-3D immersive surround sound technologies. Located in the Babelsberg 'Media City' complex in Potsdam, the room features one of the largest Meyer Sound cinema monitoring systems ever installed.

Before making the critical decision on loudspeakers, Rotor Film held intensive comparative listening tests, with participation by management, staff, and associated independent mixing engineers.

"We invited about 20 sound designers and freelance engineers as our guests to listen to a wide range of audio samples," says Christoph Engelke, technical director at Rotor Film. "Based on everyone's listening experiences, a Meyer Sound system was the clear choice for our two top manag

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UK - Audio manufacturer Powersoft is sponsoring AV Academy, a comprehensive InfoComm Certified Specialist (CTS) training track organised by AV Magazine and RH Consulting. Topics covered include corporate AV, education AV and high performance sound.

AV Academy - a collection of intensive InfoComm certified courses - is designed to impart in-depth knowledge to audio professionals seeking to improve their system specification abilities for installations in the corporate AV, education AV and high-performance sound environments.

CTS accredited instructor Roland Hemming will lead classes through four InfoComm certified courses between 1 March and 13 April, 2016.. Hemming, who will be using premium products from Powersoft to help facilitate the training sessions, managed two of Europe's largest audio projects: the Millennium Dome and the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

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USA - American alternative rock band X Ambassadors are touring North America through March on their VHS tour using a fully MIDI-triggered lighting rig designed by Cour Design that includes Elation Professional SixPar 200 LED PAR colour changers and Platinum Beam 5R beam lights.

Cour Design handles production design, lighting programming and production coordination on the tour, their first time working with the band. "We met with their management team when we first started our business," stated Gordon Droitcour, co-founder and designer along with Erik Anderson at the Nashville-based design house that can take a project from napkin sketch to full production. "We had never heard of X Ambassadors but they've been one of our most exciting bands to date."

Cour Design specializes in intricate visual designs that literally run themselves. They have developed a sy

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UK - The 32nd Reproduced Sound Conference, entitled Sound with Pictures - time is of the essence, will focus on all aspects of electroacoustics for cinema, TV and the internet. It will take place 15-17 November 2016 at the Holiday Inn, Herbert Walker Avenue, Southampton.

Papers may be submitted on all electroacoustic topics including the following: Cinema Sound, Live Sound, Audio System Design, Case Studies, Environmental Noise Control of Events, Audio/Visual Timing, Intelligibility, Measurement & Evaluation, Loudspeakers and Microphones, Acoustics of Venues.

Offers of papers on any electroacoustics topic will be considered for the programme.

Abstracts (150 words) for papers plus a short biography of up to 150 words may be sent to linda.canty@ioa.org.uk by Friday 20 May 2016. Final written papers for the Proceedings must be submitted by Friday 30 September 2016.

(Jim E

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UK - Flashlight Ltd has announced it has been experiencing high demand and great feedback from customers on the ARRI Skypanel range since it started shipping in September. Both the Manchester and London offices are reporting extensive sales to broadcasters, rental companies and studios. With over 200 units sold so far the team are adding to their unprecedented numbers of ARRI LED L-Series sold.

Flashlight's Andy Dodd says: 'It has been phenomenal so far, although not surprising as it is a fantastic product. The technical aspects of the product, with its competitive price point is making it an attractive unit for many of our customers."

The BBC and ITV have been some of the first to invest in the new units, taking a large quantity of Skypanels to bolster their various studios. Andy has received nothing but positive feedback from staff there: "They offer everything u

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Denmark - The Musikteater in Vejle, Denmark is a busy - primarily - receiving theatre with a 1200 capacity flexible main auditorium that can be fully seated in a traditional set up or have a standing configuration. The venue also hosts corporate and private events, and the technical team co-ordinate production for a month long outdoor summer entertainment season in the park. They additionally provide technical production for the nearby Spectrum Conference & Sports Centre, which is also run by the city.

Musikteater's investment in Kinesys products started around six years ago, explains technical manager Tor Futtrup, who has been working there for 13 years and initiated this move with a first purchase of 10 3.25 tonne Kinesys LibraCELL load measuring shackles and the Kinesys LibraBASIC system.

The Libra shackle pin is designed to work with the globally recognised Crosby safety

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USA - VER, the global provider of production equipment and engineering support, announced that it has acquired the business of DPS Inc., a production services company. In a sale ordered by the bankruptcy court, VER acquired more than half of the company's lighting and film equipment, nearly all of its audio, video, and rigging equipment, its 70,000sq.ft facility near Burbank, CA and retained nearly half of the company's employees.

VER is already consolidating its rapidly growing, industry-recognized lighting division at DPS's former location. The new VER Light Lab is being expanded to create the most significant facility in Southern California, enabling clients to design, test, and prep systems in real time, supported by the VER engineering team, enabling even more creative solutions and a streamlined programming and design process.

VER will invest further to enhance the alr

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UK - Taking place as part of the London International Mime Festival, Tipping Point is the latest production from renowned theatre company Ockham's Razor and features five acrobatic performers using simple metal poles to create an unforgettable theatrical experience. It is currently running at the Platform Theatre, London, and has already achieved critical acclaim. With its strong reputation as the leading theatrical lighting supplier, WL is providing the equipment for this ground-breaking show.

Tipping Point is a co-commission by the London International Mime Festival and The Lowry, Salford Quays, and is produced by Turtle Key Arts. Alison King, chief executive at Turtle Key Arts, comments, "With Tipping Point, we wanted to create something extraordinary. The emphasis was on exploring the use of circus equipment yet in an unconventional manner. We were eager

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Poland - Lighting designer Michal Dobek has created a mind-bending light show featuring over a hundred Clay Paky fixtures on the 16th edition of one of Poland's biggest techno music events, Mayday festival.

Taking place across the three levels of Katowice's Spodek Arena, Dobek employed 72 Clay Paky Sharpys and 32 Alpha Spot QWO 800 to shoot intense aerial effects over the audience at the event's main stage. The festival lighting system was supplied by TSE, with the main stage operated by Dobek, Waldemar Osentowski and Marcin Kalu?ynski.

"The Sharpy is the ideal fixture for electronic dance music festivals, especially at this venue," says Dobek. "It is incredibly fast with a precise and reliable beam and is very lightweight."

Weighing just 19kg, the Sharpy produces a perfectly parallel, laser-like beam. The fixtures were spread across several automated

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Germany - An array of Clay Paky Mythos and Sharpy Wash 330 fixtures have been recreated in minute model form at Miniatur Wunderland's latest attraction - an exact functioning replica of German pop superstar Helene Fischer's sold-out concert at the Berlin Olympiastadion in July 2015.

The model features the real life audiovisual elements and detail of the open-air performance, including the lighting rig used for the original full-scale design by Patrick Woodroffe and Andreas Kisters. The build, led by project manager Sven Hinzmann and a highly skilled team of around 40 Miniatur Wunderland designers and engineers, took eight weeks to complete.

Working off detailed spec sheets and 3D drawings supplied by Clay Paky, Hinzmann and his team meticulously built each of the models, integrating the Mythos with RGB LED controlled via DMX. There is also a functioning video element display

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Germany - Traditionally, in Berlin the New Year is greeted at the Brandenburg Gate. Once again, TLT Event AG was in charge of production and technical implementation.

The turn of the year was also the go-ahead for TLT to invest in a RockLink system. On New Year's Eve it came into operation for the first time in order to provide a redundant fibreoptic network for the MA-Net between FOH and Dimmercity.

"As we are placing great value on reliability for our productions, we have been working with Rock Solid Technologies' RockSwitch Mk2 for some time. Moreover, there was an increasing internal necessity to invest in a redundant fiberoptic network", stated Helge Rabethge, technical director Light and Rigging.

"For the buying decision, it was important to us to invest in a reliable system that consists of as few individual components as possible and that is easy to

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UK - Provider of technical production services, Adlib, recently invested in Coda's new AiRAY fully integrated compact 2 x12" / 3-way line array system. Adlib have been involved with Coda for several years having first bought the AIRLINE LA12 and ViRAY systems and subsequently supplementing those with the smaller TiRAY system. Happy with the performance of its Coda range, Adlib were naturally keen to explore any advantages offered by the AiRAY system and identified a number of positives that prompted an immediate investment. From their comprehensive experience of the industry, Adlib identified what they saw as a gap in provision for theatre productions where smaller available line-array systems were not quite adequate but where the requirement for 'the next size up' in the shape of systems designed for arenas, constituted an overkill in both audio provision and trucking requir

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UK / Italy - Audio-visual consultants and engineering experts Hoare Lea chose Shure's Microflex Wireless installation microphones as part of their design for the UK Pavilion's AV systems at the World Expo 2015 in Milan. In developing systems to implement the UK Pavilion's soundscape and audio-visual elements, Hoare Lea worked with architects BDP and integrators Stage One amongst others.

British involvement in the Expo was led by UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) with support from seven HM Government departments. The UK Pavilion was designed by award-winning British artist Wolfgang Buttress to reflect the theme 'Grown in Britain & Northern Ireland', and incorporated visual technology, interactive lighting and sound design, a 360-degree immersive speaker array and musical elements to evoke the journey of a honey bee through a series of landscapes as visitors passed through the pavil

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Germany - Motörhead blasted off in the 1970s and rocked gloriously loudly for the next 40 years until their last live gig in Berlin on 11December 2015.

The band officially ended on 28 December 2015, two and a half weeks after that memorable show in Berlin, and part way through the Bad Magic tour with the passing of founder, lead singer and rock 'n' roll warrior Lemmy (Ian Fraser Kilmister) aged 70.

The Bad Magic tour was supporting their 22nd studio album - for which lighting designer Caio Bertti sculpted a classic rock 'n' roll look with the contemporary twist of moving lights from Robe.

The famous Motörhead bomber set piece also flew again for this European tour - its last as it would turn out - and its first time on a tour for many years. It was completely refurbished and brought bang up-to-date with new lighting including Robe Pointes and LEDWash 600s plus a full au

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USA - German sound reinforcement specialist HK Audio announced at NAMM this week that it is undertaking a complete global overhaul of its visual and identity with the introduction of its new marketing campaign: the Soundmakers.

The Soundmakers campaign is the result of two years of work, preparation and planning by HK Audio's marketing team in collaboration with a number of external agencies from across Europe, says the company.

Focusing on the Soundmaker - the person who is fascinated by the energy of sound from any perspective - the campaign brings clean, fresh visuals to the entire HK Audio output, from websites and social media channels through to traditional print advertising and even products themselves.

The new HK Audio corporate design philosophy will be applied by the brand's worldwide business partners immediately, with results set to be seen across an increasin

  1. Ministry of Sound installs Martin CDD15 speakers
  2. Robe adds volume for Skindred tour
  3. Allen & Heath iDR installed in Vienna's Konzerthaus
  4. White Light launches Shop WL online store
  5. PRG XL Video supports The Aloud Charity concert
  6. RH Consulting releases guide to Voice Alarm systems
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