UK - For a second year, PLASA is able to support UK-based companies who wish to exhibit at LDI. Working in conjunction with the Department for Business and Trade, UK companies can make their debut at the Las Vegas trade show for a specially reduced rate.
When LDI returns this year from 3-5 December, the show will yet again feature the Meet the Brits Pavilion, which will introduce UK companies to the expansive US market and facilitate valuable in-person networking.
The Meet the Brits package includes a 5sq.ft logo-branded kiosk, complete with furniture, lighting and power, as well as online and onsite promotion. With PLASA’s support, this package is reduced from $3,800 down to $2,600.
Exhibitors in the Meet the Brits Pavilion will also gain an invitation to a special networking reception and have the opportunity to attend the Department for Business and Trade Ex

South Africa - Technical supplier, Stage Effects Group, has purchased a grandMA3 full-size. Company owner Theo Papenfus and director Erik de Bruin recently took ownership of the console from DWR Distribution.
“While we are definitely buying rider orientated gear to at least have the market on our side, this is also for our shows,” explained Erik. “We’ve had a grandMA2 console for quite a while now and it will also be used as our backup desk should we run a show in Mode 2. If you look at the MA history, both grandMA and grandMA2 desks are user friendly and grandMA3 will be too. We look forward to enjoying this desk the same way we did our previous console.”
Robert Izzett from DWR adds, “There are only a few grandMA3 full-size consoles in the country and generally, when there is a big international act, at least two are specified. Stage Effects are an awesom

UK - As the name suggests, Bristol-based Enlightened has its roots in lighting. But over the years, the company has evolved to become a prominent complete technical solutions provider in the South West of England, covering everything from sales, hire and equipment repair through to installation and full event production services.
A recent investment in a Nexo Geo M10 line array system has seen Enlightened bolstering an already significant inventory of Nexo ID and P+ Series point-source boxes.
“They’re like hot cakes” reports production manager Ryan Stromski. “The utilisation of our Nexo stock is so high, they’re never on the shelf.”
The new Geo M10 system was only in the warehouse for a few days before heading to Glastonbury where Enlightened had over 50 lists of equipment distributed over at least 10 locations around the festival site. On return, it

UK - VDC Trading has announced that it has promoted three employees to head up a new technical team, officially formalising its technical consultation service offering to customers.
The new department is spearheaded by Jim Bulbeck, technical support manager, and David Barnard, customer services manager, both supported by technical assistant Dan Tompkins.
Via an ‘added-value consultative sales approach’, VDC customers have always had access to experienced advisors helping them overcome any technical issues. The new team just makes it easier for them to have a dedicated and named point person to deal with their enquiries, says the company.
Niall Holden, founder and CEO of VDC Trading comments: “We’ve always had a technical support department but this year as we lurch back into ‘normal’ busy times we have seen a huge increase in technical enquiries so

UK - Electric Airshows has announced its success in winning funding from The Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) for ongoing innovation projects. The specialist provider of drone light show services to the UK’s outdoor events market, which launched last year, made its application for funding as part of the UK government’s Create Growth programme.
Designed to help creative businesses explore new innovation projects as a stimulus for growth, the Create Growth programme provides targeted support for SMEs in the creative industries in six appointed UK regions outside of London. Run by Innovate UK EDGE, part of UK Research and Innovation, it makes significant sums available for such projects. To be successful, eligible businesses must demonstrate both a clear growth opportunity and their proposed innovation which will address it.
Electric Airshows, founded by e

UK - At Glastonbury 2023, one dozen Claypaky Skylos seachlights held their own against headlining acts on the Pyramid Stage, including the UK’s last live touring performance of Sir Elton John. Placed on the ground and producing super-concentrated beams of lights, the Skylos searchlights showed themselves to be extremely versatile fixtures that are more than simple searchlights, creating dense, solid beams of light and ever-greater light output.
Terry Cook, partner and principal designer for Woodroffe Bassett Design, was committed as lighting designer for Guns N' Roses and Sir Elton John. He recalls seeing Skylos for the first time in Italy and recognising that “this was a fixture that would cut through the summer twilight sky at Glastonbury. We knew we wanted an ultra-bright, large beam fixture that would sit behind the iconic Pyramid stage creating fingers of light shi

UK - British loudspeaker manufacturer EM Acoustics returned to Glastonbury’s Acoustic Stage, following the success of last year's outing.
Housed inside a large bright red tent, the Acoustic Stage is said to be a ‘festival within a festival’. Blues, folk, contemporary and country music are the order of the day. This year’s line-up included the Magic Numbers, Seth Lakeman, Badly Drawn Boy, Richard Thompson, Newton Faulkner, Paul Carrack, Steve Earle, and Rumer, among others. In conjunction with De Brabant Audio, EM supplied the full PA package for the Acoustic Stage.
“We are thrilled to have returned to the Acoustic Stage for the 2023 festival,” says Mike Wheeler, operations director at EM Acoustics. “Returning to Glastonbury for a second year confirms our belief in the capabilities of the HALO-A system. The feedback we’ve received has yet again been univ

Finland - Genelec has been chosen as Finland’s Brand of the Year. Organised by Finland’s Chamber of Commerce, the annual competition is focused on fostering Finnish brand expertise and long-term brand development work, with the results being announced during the recent Great Brand Day at Helsinki’s Music Centre.
With a shortlist that also included the celebrated Finnish brands Lumene, Niemi and Siili, a jury of brand and intellectual property professionals evaluated many criteria - including brand story, customer experience, innovation, intellectual property protection, communication strategy, brand book and brand image. Additionally, members of the Finnish public were also able to play a part in the shortlisting process by nominating their favourite brand.
“The Genelec brand is built on the company's core values and is based on competence and enabling people t

Singapore - Acoustic & Lighting System has joined the international network of Fenix Stage distributors.
Discussions began at ISE Barcelona 2023. Acoustic & Lighting will add Fenix Stage's lifting towers, ground support towers and display support solutions to its product offering for the Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore markets.
“We are delighted with this partnership, as our international expansion efforts are paying off and our network is growing rapidly,” says Fenix.
Fenix Stage sales director Alex Bryan has already presented training sessions at Acoustic and Lighting bases in in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) and Bangkok (Thailand).
These training sessions marked Fenix's official welcome to Acoustic & Lighting System. “We thank the attendees and our new distributor for their support and are excited to a

UK - AUX Import has announced its expansion into video solutions with its appointment as the exclusive distributor of Ecler Video in the UK.
"This is a significant milestone in the growth and development of AUX Import as we expand our range of products and services to meet our customers' needs," said Mike Newman, sales director at AUX Import. "With Ecler Video on board, we will be able to offer a complete and comprehensive AV solution that further strengthens AUX Import's position as a leading supplier of Pro AV solutions in the UK."
Ecler Video's product range includes video distribution over IP, wireless conferencing switchers and other advanced video solutions that will meet the requirements of clients in various sectors, including corporate, hospitality, education, and retail.
"We are thrilled to have AUX Import on board as our exclusive video solutions dis

Norway - Prism Sound has appointed Matrix Pro Audio as its distributor in Norway, with responsibility for its entire range of audio conversion products including the recently launched Dream ADA-128 modular system.
Based in Rykkinn, near Oslo, Matrix has over 20 years’ experience of providing pro audio equipment to the Norwegian market and specialises in supporting all market sectors, including project studio owners, singer/songwriters, sound designers, educational establishments and science and research academies. As well as handling Prism Sound, the company also retails products from manufacturers such as PMC, Dangerous Music, Wes Audio, Tegeler Audio Manufaktur, Manultec, Rockruepel, Flock Audio, Elysia, Gainlab Audio, Buzz Audio and more.
The company’s owner, Frank Oestrem, says he is delighted to represent an established brand with a range of products that fit

Strong Performance - Turnover at Nimax Theatres rose to £31.9m in the year ending October 2022, which marks the first full year of trading figures since the pandemic and a 6.7% increase on 2019. When compared to the previous year, ending October 2021 and including disruption caused by the pandemic, the increase in turnover is 289%.
Nimax Theatres’ venues include the Palace, the Garrick, the Duchess, the Vaudeville, the Apollo and the Lyric theatres in the West End. According to its annual accounts filed this month, turnover to October 2, 2022 was £31.9m. This is up from £29.9m compared with 2019, prior to the pandemic. In the year ending October 2021, turnover was just £8.2m. According to the accounts, profit for the financial period in 2022 was £6.7m
The accounts state that "a major aspect of the strong performance was the successful run of the shows in the ye

South Africa - Stage Audio Works recently completed a successful installation of a new house lighting system at Unite 180 Church's new 2,500-seat capacity space in Pretoria. The project, which commenced in April 2023, aimed to provide the space with a controllable RGBW house lighting solution that would enhance the ambiance and overall experience of the congregation.
The decision to specify Stage Audio Works' Stage Plus house lighting solution was driven by the client’s desire to achieve superior control, zoning capabilities, and a wide range of colour options to create dynamic lighting effects within their budget.
"We are thrilled to have partnered with Unite 180 Church to deliver a cutting-edge house lighting system for their new venue," says Lee Thomson, sales manager at Stage Audio Works. "Our team has been working closely with Unite 180 on a number of projects o

UK - Facing their third year of providing technical services for Access The Festival (ATF), the three-day EDM dance party in Warwick’s Sherbourne Park, events specialist Sound Access turned for the first time to Martin Audio’s Wavefront Precision (WPS) for the sound reinforcement.
The festival, organised by DJs Will Darley and Alex Neidhardt, continues to evolve its concept (this year adding a third day). But mindful that with three stages in close proximity, and a lot of low-frequency energy to contain, Sound Access owner Joe Baker’s rationale was simple. “The organisers wanted to upgrade the audio this year because we all felt that the listening experience was the most important.”
In order to mitigate sound spillage, tight control was required. “Last year, noise rejection out the back was quite bad with the system we used,” acknowledged Baker. But there

Kazakhstan - The Kazakh State Academic Musical Drama Theatre has upgraded its performance credentials with a new venue and an extensive new lighting rig, including 32 fixtures from Italian manufacturer, Prolights. The extensive new lighting system was installed as part of a major sound and lighting upgrade, provided by leading entertainment technology consultant, and Prolights' partner for Kazakhstan, Samat Show Technic.
Named after one of the country's best-known actors, Kalibek Kuanyshbayev (1893-1968), the K.Kuanyshbayev Theatre first opened its doors in 1991 and has been an award-winning focal point for Kazakhstan's art and culture ever since. While the original building remains a pearl of Astana's artistic heritage as the headquarters of the Youth Theatre, in 2020 the go-ahead was given for a new, secondary auditorium to be built, to serve as the Kazakh State Academic M

China - Hosted by the Entertainment Times and co-organised by the Longjoin Group - who are also the creators of the event - the Rave Jam Music Carnival is a massive outdoor music festival that combines a spread of electro, rap and pop music to appeal to a wide audience.
The first edition took place in Linjiang’s Cherry Blossom Park over the May Day holiday weekend and welcomed nearly 24,000 festival-goers over the course of the two days. To cover such a vast area, the Longjoin Group provided a front-to-back KV2 Audio system based on the flagship VHD5 Constant Power Point Source system supplemented by smaller VHD systems for side-fill and front-fill, plus a full complement of ESSeries DJ monitors and ESM stage monitors.
The festival boasted a line-up of Chinese and Asian artists including Aryue Zheng Yue, one of the world’s top 100 DJs in 2022, DJ KAKA-the first Ch

Romania - The Bucharest Opera recently staged The Phantom of the Opera, Broadway’s longest-running musical, with a wide array of Claypaky fixtures illuminating the action.
The production at the Bucharest National Opera House ran from 31 March to 14 May, with the first performances selling out hours after tickets went on sale. The show’s staff worked with teams from Broadway and London’s West End to ensure a high artistic level was achieved.
Lighting designer Bogumił Palewicz selected the Claypaky fixtures, which were supplied by Bucharest’s Marbo Trade, Claypaky’s distributor in Romania. The package consisted of 33 Scenius Profiles, 20 HY B-EYE K15 and three HY B-EYE K25 moving head washes, four Arolla Profile HPs and four Sharpy X Frame compact hybrid fixtures.
“Claypaky represents good quality and innovative solutions,” says Palewicz. “T

UK - Several years in the making, Harmony of The Worlds, composed by Satya Hinduja, began as a visionary notion of spatialising and immersing sound all around an audience. What started with an orchestra of eight and just four singers, quickly tripled and grew again, artistically combining the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, a choir, and hundreds of pre-recorded sounds to totally immerse its audience in 360 degrees of musical wellness.
The DiGiCo Quantum 7 was the only digital mixing console on the market with the flexibility and technical capabilities to handle such a project, and controlled by sound engineer, Mark Rogers, it delivered.
Harmony of The Worlds, conducted by David Murphy, was a free concert held at St Mary’s Church, Luton, created and composed by Satya Hinduja to explore the connection between music and human wellness. The arrangement of H

UK - They might not have been as common as flags at Glastonbury, but Chauvet Professional fixtures were widely deployed at Worthy Farm. The company’s products were used to add extra colour and excitement to 17 of the festival’s stages.
Included in the group were main attractions like the Pyramid, Greenpeace, Flying Bus and new Levels stages, as well as more specialised attractions like the Avalon Stage, nightclub-like Salon Carousel, The Hive Stage, Outside Circus Stage, and the San Remo Stage.
At the Pyramid Stage, John Luke Roles used 30 of the Color Strike M motorised strobe/blinders, supplied by Solotech, UK Group, in his floor package for Lizzo’s performance. A collection of 14 Color Strike Ms lined the base of the central stage riser, which had a sliding backdrop that the Detroit singer exited the stage through, while 16 other units lined stage left and r

UK - Robe moving lights were in action across multiple stages at the 2023 Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, including in three key ‘creative’ areas of the massive site at Worthy Farm.
These were the spectacular fire-breathing Arcadia Spider 360-degree arena, the eclectic Park Stage, one of the most popular Glasto zones, and the BBC Introducing stage.
Theresa Gibson, head of marketing at Robe UK comments: “The magic of Glastonbury Festival never fails to disappoint, and this year was no different.
“Fields of back-to-back live music, dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and contemporary art forms filled the sunny skies of Worthy Farm for miles on end. As one of the biggest events in the global festival calendar, we were excited once again to have a series of our latest fixtures deployed on key stages across the site, including Robe

India - Ayrton has announced the appointment of Vardhaman Megatech (VMT) as its new, exclusive distributor for India. The appointment takes place with immediate effect.
VMT is a professional audio and lighting distribution company with a family history that spans six generations from its formation in 1807. VMT’s thriving professional audio and lighting business was first introduced in 1958 and operates through a retail division (VMT Retail) of 13 nationwide stores/offices, an enterprise division (VMT Enterprise) specialising in serving corporate clients and institutions, and a distribution division (VMT Distribution) that represents some of the world’s leading brands in professional audio and lighting.
“We are thrilled and honoured to be Ayrton distributors,” says VMT’s country head for distribution sales, Kekul Sheth. “Ayrton's reputation for innovation, q

USA - Clair Global has announced that Sound Image, will join the Clair Global Group. This partnership will enhance both organisations’ live production and systems integration capabilities and will result in a larger depth and breadth of service and product offerings for Clair Global and Sound Image clients alike, says a statement.
Sound Image CEO, Dave Shadoan, who has led the organisation since the late seventies, comments: “As I looked ahead and considered my next steps, I knew that partnering with Clair Global would further safeguard a sustainable and prosperous future for our employees and our clients. It became clear that Clair was a good fit because of our mutual dedication to fostering meaningful connections in business, coupled with an unwavering commitment to exceptional customer support and service.”
There are no major changes planned for the continued

UK - PLASA and LSi are calling for nominations for this year’s Gottelier Award. The award recognises the invaluable contributions of the people behind the products, from pioneering product developers to creative R&D teams.
Named after the late lighting designer and industry commentator Tony Gottelier, the Gottelier Award aims to recognise product developers who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of entertainment, presentation, or installation technology.
Launched in 2007, previous recipients include: JB Toby (Avolites), Christian Heil (L-Acoustics); Alan Jacobi (Unusual Rigging); Wayne Howell (Artistic Licence); Anne Valentino (ETC); David Cunningham (Entertec); Pasquale Quadri (Claypaky); Jim Bornhorst (Vari-Lite); John Meyer (Meyer Sound); Terry Clarke (Klark Teknik, MC2 Audio); Fred Foster (ETC); Alex Cooper (Midas & Klark Teknik); Joh

USA - The Long Reach Long Riders hosted an auction to benefit Behind the Scenes at their 20th Anniversary Ride’s celebratory banquet earlier this month. The auction itself was quite special, including only one item, a detailed quilt incorporating t-shirts from every charity ride hosted by the LRLR over their 20-year history. The quilt was created and donated, “a true labour of love” by long time BTS supporters and quilters Shan and Trish Ayers.
The Ayers regularly donate many of their intricate handcrafted woodwork creations, including items to be auctioned off during the annual LRLR Raffle at the USITT conference as well as for sale on the Behind the Scenes website. Shan Ayers comments: “The quilt idea came about during casual conversation at the BTS booth this past March in St. Louis. The timetable was tight, so we immediately went to work. The work that LRLR and

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