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UK - After 47 years in business, Avolites - a leader in the design and manufacture of lighting and video control products - has announced the company's acquisition by entertainment lighting specialist, Robe Lighting of Roznov in the Czech Republic. The agreement was reached in the UK yesterday.
“The Avolites Leadership team wanted to ensure the best outcome for our employees, customers, suppliers and the brand,” said Avolites MD Paul Wong. “Robe is an ideal home that will enable us to achieve just that, whilst maintaining our core values. Robe is a great fit for everyone associated with Avolites. Robe has a wealth of resources that will aid Avolites to accelerate its ambitious innovation and product development programmes.”
“This is a great acquisition for Robe,” said Josef Valchar, CEO Robe Lighting s.r.o., “Avolites has always been at the pinnacle of li

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Song Tracking - The music industry has committed to improving metadata for tracking songs on music streaming platforms, following widespread criticism from artists. The writers, performers and producers of songs will now be consistently identified. These creators say they do not receive their fair share of royalties when tracks are played on streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music. It comes as the government launches a group to look into these concerns.
Sir John Whittingdale, minister for the creative industries, said the move would help the UK to "offer viable career opportunities". "This landmark agreement on streaming metadata is a step towards ensuring UK musicians in the digital age are fairly credited and compensated for their contributions and creativity," he said. "I'm pleased to be bringing the industry together so we can explore wider issues around music
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USA - Lil Wayne, Third Eye Blind, Wu-Tang Clan, Nile Rodgers, Babyface Ray, Maren Morris…. There were plenty of stars at Pharrell Williams’ Something in the Water festival on Virginia Beach, but sadly, there was plenty of water too. High winds and rains along the Atlantic coast battered the superstar’s three-day event; a tornado even touched down nearby. Things got so bad, Friday and Saturday’s shows had to be delayed, while Sunday’s was completely cancelled.
But Evan Kirkendall and his team at Harford Sound, along with their collaborator Steve Tanruther’s Rock the House, were able to handle anything Mother Nature dished out, with help from an all-weather rig anchored by 238 IP-rated Chauvet Professional fixtures.
“Thankfully, all of our Chauvet lights were ready take on the storms,” said lead light tech Gabe Odachowski. “Given the size and scope of t

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South Africa - The AFM Fountain of Life Church in the tropical garden town of Tzaneen recently played host to the Tzaneen Pastors Fraternal Worship Conference. Audio clarity at such events is an essential element of proceedings, something which on this occasion might have proved challenging given that the venue was approaching the end of a renovation project. Although the work was almost concluded, the interior had not yet benefitted from carpets or any form of acoustic treatment.
The conference enlisted the services of audio rental specialists Mbhetse Productions, who deployed HH Electronics TNA Line Array to deliver the necessary power and clarity for the combination of spoken word and music ensemble presentations.
For front of house, Mbhetse Productions deployed a ground-stacked configuration comprising (per side) one TNA-1800S, one TNA-2120SA and four TNA 2051, w

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UK - Hosting on behalf of Ukraine, the United Kingdom welcomed a global viewing audience of more than 161m into the Liverpool Arena to hear performances from the top 26 countries during the grand finale of Eurovsion, aired live on 13 May. Shure Axient Digital Wireless System was selected to provide to support the production.
Britannia Row provided audio equipment for the 67th edition of Eurovision Song Contest. Tom Brown, project manager at Britannia Row, together with his team and Robert Edwards, head of sound at ESC 2023, specified an extensive system of Shure Axient Digital, PSM 1000 in-ear monitoring, AD600 Axient Digital Spectrum Manager, ShowLink, Wireless Workbench Software, and Wavetool Software to provide the robust and solid solution required.
Tom Brown commented: “We needed a reliable system that we could be confident in pushing to its limits, and the Shu

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USA - Country singer Brett Young’s Five, TOUR, Three, Two, One Tour swept into LA’s The Greek Theatre in May with an upbeat, colourful lighting design by Luke Elrod. During the show, he enveloped the audience in starry gobo-effects and bright, rich colours using Vari-Lite VL3600 Profile IP fixtures from Signify.
Elrod, who runs Luke Elrod Designs from his base in Nashville, Tennessee, has been Brett Young’s tour lighting director since mid-2022. The current tour visits a wide range of venue sizes as well as festivals, meaning Elrod required an IP-rated fixture capable of producing bright colours and effects using the full 28-strong VL3600 rig or a scaled down version.
“I’d heard many great things about the VL3600s and they checked off all of the boxes for the design,” says Elrod. “I wanted something that was really punchy and could fill a lot of space, wh

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UK - The past performers list at Manchester Academy ranges from David Bowie and Jimi Hendrix, to Lady Gaga and Adele. Comprising four independent music venues in the heart of The University of Manchester campus, the complex hosts hundreds of gigs that attract over 300,000 fans each year.
The principal and largest of the venues, Academy 1, recently underwent an audio overhaul, upgrading their existing L-Acoustics concert sound system to maintain a cutting-edge and rider-friendly status that will future-proof the venue and continue to attract the major artists that perform there regularly.
Opened in 1990, the 2,600-capacity Academy 1 was a purpose-built venue to augment the existing and smaller Academy 2, Academy 3 and Club Academy venues in the University’s Students’ Union. Academy 1 was designed to attract A-list artists, and it succeeded from day one, which saw th

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South Africa - Elation Professional's exclusive sales partner in South Africa, The Production Warehouse, took to the road in mid-May to show first-hand to customers an array of its latest lighting products including luminaires from Elation’s popular Proteus, Fuze, and KL series.
While theatre, rental house and broadcast clients took the opportunity to demo products, the tour, which visited Johannesburg 15-16 May and Cape Town 18-19 May, was a chance for the AV distribution company to renew relationships post-pandemic.
Marnus Nieuwoudt, owner of The Production Warehouse, stated: “Being our first major roadshow post-Covid, the roadshow wasn't only about showcasing the latest technology Elation has to offer, it was more about reconnecting and networking with old friends and colleagues, while meeting some new customers along the way.”
Marnus says that, not sur

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UK - The ABTT’s first Make A Difference conference took place at the Albany Theatre on Friday 21 April, 2023, and the association has now announced the release of the conference’s full report.
70 industry delegates from across the country and a range of companies, venues, organisations and institutions were in attendance to discuss the industry’s current recruitment and retention challenges. The report outlines the issues which were discussed and the actions that were suggested. It also reports on some things that have already happened as a result of the conference day.
The “conference day was developed in order to find a way to better host and join-up some of the thinking that was happening throughout the year in ABTT seminars and at the ABTT Theatre Show. It was also intended that the conference would not only further nurture these discussions but would also

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Mexico - Myst is a colourful cabaret-style musical megamix encapsulating some of Mexico’s rich and vibrant musical culture and history over two hours - split into two acts - staged at the Foro Totalplay in Mexico City.
At the centre of the show’s lighting since it has been at this venue are 60 x Robe Spikies and 30 x Spiider LED wash beam moving lights. These were specified by lighting designer Juan Ignacio Adriano who is also the technical director of música esencial at Foro Totalplay.
This story began back in 2017 when Myst needed a new resident venue after being forced to move from the previous one, Sala Corona, which was damaged in the devasting 2017 earthquake.
Foro Totalplay, inside the upscale Antara Mall in the Polanco district of CDMX, was designed as a 400-capacity club rather than a theatre or even a cabaret venue, explained Juan Ig

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UAE - Dubai’s newest luxury hotel, Atlantis The Royal offers 795 guest rooms, plus 17 on-site restaurants. Ears are not forgotten, as throughout the hotel’s common areas the sonic environments are reproduced by more than 400 discreetly placed Meyer Sound self-powered loudspeakers.
Thrusting up from Dubai’s elegant Palm Jumeriah, and surrounded by the waters of the Persian Gulf, Atlantis The Royal opened early in 2023. The developers of the hotel, Investment Corporation of Dubai, made it clear to all parties involved that only the highest standards of excellence should be considered in the selection of vendors. This brief was communicated to the media consultant, Mediatech, and the firm’s principal consultant on the project, Ged King.
Because the audio systems could in no way intrude on the visual aesthetics, for the restaurants and most common areas, Mediatech

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USA - The 2023 CMT Music Awards moved from Nashville to Austin this year. The three-hour event, which was broadcast on CBS, radiated a fresh, vibrant energy that instantly captured attention with its distinctive colour schemes, boldly outlined stage, and dramatic catwalks.
Tom Kenny, who created the lighting design for the event at The Moody Centre, credits the change of venue with inspiring him, production designer Ann Brahic, and the rest of their team to reach deep into their creative wells to come up with their bold, and highly original, looks.
“The whole process of moving to the hip city of Austin gave us all a big hit of adrenalin,” said Kenny. “Everyone jumped in to have fun and worked hard at getting the show into a great place. We began the week outdoors, at the stage off Congress, with a big show by Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban that put the whole ci

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Dominican Republic - IVM Multieventos, a company with over 20 years of experience in the industry based in the Dominican Republic, has chosen DiGiCo as their preferred brand. As one of the earliest adopters of the Quantum 338, the company has solidified its position as a leading player in the event industry in the Caribbean.
Owner, Ivan Abreu, began pursuing his dream of working in the music industry at a very young age, starting as a DJ. Since forming IVM, the company has experienced significant growth, overcoming barriers by organising large-scale events nationwide. Some of the Caribbean’s most renowned artists, such as Romeo Santos and Juan Luis Guerra, are part of its portfolio.
“Throughout our extensive journey in the industry, we had never had the opportunity to use products from the renowned DiGiCo brand,” says Ivan. “However, once we ventured into explo

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UK - The ABTT is inviting people to sign up and participate in its Work Life Challenge initiative. It’s a challenge designed to “encourage us to prioritise time for activities that allow us to wind down from the stresses and strains of our working life, while also providing a focus and incentive for raising money for our much-loved industry charities: Backup Tech, The Theatrical Guild and Stagehand”.
The aim of the challenge is to encourage us to consider and promote a better attitude towards achieving a healthy balance between our work and other “life” activities that help us to unwind and get away from the pressures of our career. Consider starting a walking group; get together with others that run; start a weekly yoga practice before shows; baking; crafting; anything you like but make sure it’s fun and that it makes you smile.
There are two options to s

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USA - Las Vegas-based Show & Design Group (SDG) has made its first investment in Ayrton lighting fixtures with the purchase of 24 Diablo S units. ACT Entertainment is the exclusive distributor of Ayrton products in North America.
SDG offers live event production and lighting rentals; a complete trucking division, SDG Logistics, Inc., is targeted at expedited entertainment logistics.
“The purchase of 24 Diablo S fixtures is our introduction to Ayrton, although we have been aware of the brand since they launched MagicPanels,” says project manager, Lew Aronoff. “Our core business is trade shows and corporate theatre, and we’ve seen Diablos become very prevalent in the cross-rental market. Our B2B partners run short of 20K lumen fixtures on a regular basis, so we decided to invest in Diablos since we needed more fixtures of that size. Their size and weight-to-o

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USA - Lynn Ahrens-Stephen Flaherty’s musical comedy Seussical, based on the works of the famed Dr. Seuss, is filled with an abundance of exuberant characters, from Yertle the Turtle and Gertrude McFuzz, to Sour Kangaroo and the Wickersham Brothers, The Cat in the Hat, and The Grinch.
Lighting such colourful characters is fun! Ask Christopher Robin, who used layered effects and a variety of light angles to bring them and their imaginative costumes to life at a recent West Hempfield High School production of the play.
“This was just a really enjoyable experience,” said Robin. “The costumes were magnificent, and the set was beautifully painted. Within the set itself, the whole spectrum of colour was used. The giant story book on stage gave me free reign to use any colour to capture the palette on the pages of Dr. Seuss’s many children books.”
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ALC NetworX, developer of the Ravenna Audio-over-IP technology has welcomed Peavey to the Ravenna community. Under its Commercial Audio brand, Peavey offers an entire range of products from the microphone to the loudspeaker, and every link in the signal chain in between.
Under the Ravenna partnership, Peavey has developed sNET - a single IP-based network infrastructure technology which will work at the core of their future MediaMatrix products. sNET is based on Ravenna, the broadcast industry’s de facto AoIP standard, featuring low latency, fully synchronised signal transparency and highest reliability - all while ensuring broad interoperability through its compatibility with AES67 and SMPTE ST 2110 standards.
According to Peavey Commercial Audio general manager, Shayne Thomas, joining the Ravenna community was a natural move. “Adopting Ravenna is part of our vision and

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UK - This year, Black Skull Creative, in collaboration with its sister company Black Skull Studio and Marvin Dietmann, was entrusted with the task of creating nine distinct country performances for this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool.
From content design and choreography to production design and stage direction, Black Skull Creative covered all aspects of creative direction and production from ideation to completion.
"As the co-creative director of nine Eurovision countries, overseeing such a massive task was undeniably challenging,” says Ross Nicholson of Black Skull Creative. “However, it was also an immensely rewarding experience. Eurovision provided a platform for untapped creativity and we, at Black Skull Creative, seized that opportunity to infuse our creatives with a sense of boundless imagination and fun.
“The Eurovision stage became

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UK - Through a mix of live performances and puppetry, The Peter Rabbit Easter Adventure is an immersive theatrical experience that brings to life the stories and characters of Beatrix Potter.
Taking place at London’s Covent Garden, audiences are transported back in time as they help Beatrix herself rescue Jemima Paddle-Duck from the clutches of Mr McGregor, with the help of Benjamin Bunny and Peter Rabbit. The show features a lighting design by Sean Gleason who approached White Light (WL) to supply his lighting equipment.
When it came to lighting the show, Sean comments: “My role on The Peter Rabbit Easter Adventure was mainly to bring found and adapted spaces to life, help set the scene, as well as bring focus to certain moments. The play has a mix of actors interacting with puppets and puppeteers so light needed to play a large role in not only crea

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Canada - AVL Media Groupand Wharfedale Pro have extended their distribution agreement to now include Canada. The change is with immediate effect.
The agreement, which was previously exclusive to the USA, now makes AVL Media Group the authorised distributor for Wharfedale Pro products throughout North America. As a result of this expansion, customers in Canada will now benefit from improved technical support, training, and product availability.
The AVL and Wharfedale Pro teams will showcase their latest offerings at the upcoming InfoComm Show in Orlando, Florida from 14-16 June.

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Europe - As of 1 July 2023, QSC will take over direct distribution for all QSC Pro Audio portfolio in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. This approach will give QSC Pro Audio customers “unrivalled access and support” from the recently opened European Service Centre in the QSC Netherlands office, says the company.
Algam will remain responsible for the distribution of QSC Pro Audio in France and the Nordics. “We would like to thank Algam for their support in distributing the QSC Pro Audio portfolio in Benelux and look forward to our continued partnership in France (including Maghreb) and the Nordics,” says Perry Celia, vice president, global sales and service, QSC Pro Audio.

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USA - Last fall, Darkroom Creative enlisted Elation Smarty Hybrid moving heads on Walker Hayes' Glad You’re Here Tour as a multifunctional workhorse on the country star’s first headlining arena tour. Currently out on his follow-up Duck Buck Tour, the design firm has again turned to the compact moving head as the only hard-edged fixture in the rig.
“It met all the needs and continues to carry far more of a workload than you think a fixture of that size could accomplish,” stated Seth Jackson, partner at Darkroom Creative, of the CMY colour-mixing hybrid moving head. Darkroom Creative is again handling lighting design, set design, video production and content for the 2023 outing with lighting supply by Bandit Lites.
Limited in both crew and truck space on last fall’s tour, the set and lighting rig for Glad You’re Here was understandably restricted. Now, howe

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USA - The ESTA Control Protocols Plugfest, the event where manufacturers and developers test their lighting products for interoperability, is scheduled to take place from 5-8 October 2023 at the Marriott Dallas/Fort Worth in Westlake, Texas. This is the 19th instance of this informal testing laboratory. Attendance is free for both ESTA members and non-members.
In response to feedback from last year’s event, the Control Protocols Working Group (CPWG) and Plugfest organisers have announced that Plugfest 2023 will expand from three days to four days. The CPWG’s task group meeting schedule now provides additional time for evening Plugfest activities.
ESTA’s Plugfest is an opportunity to connect your lighting products with those of other manufacturers to test and resolve compatibility challenges. Attendees from around the world bring controllers, intelligent lights,

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UK - Tim Routledge, lighting designer for Eurovision Song Contest 2023, utilised a large complement of 194 x Claypaky Sharpy-X-Frames, 126 x Scenius Unicos, 40 x Hy B-EYE K25s, 12 x Sharpy Plus Aqua and 12 x ReflectXions to illuminate the set, whose embracing design had special significance this year.
The ESC took place in Liverpool after Ukraine, the winner of the 2022 contest, was unable to meet the demands of hosting the 2023 event. The three live shows, two semi-finals and the grand finale, were presented by British and Ukrainian hosts and featured 37 participating countries.
The stage design by New York set designer Julio Himede was based on “the principles of togetherness, celebration and community”, a sentiment with poignancy considering international solidarity with Ukraine. The stage was 450 sq.m and featured 220sq.m of independently rotating LED screens
  1. Ayrton Diablo S on tour with Diodato
  2. Brompton powers Sydney WorldPride festival
  3. Nexo reinforces Fortress Sydney
  4. Applications open for SLX Lighting Programme
  5. GSL Professional to distribute EAW in GCC
  6. Martin Audio strengthens South American distribution
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