Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

Business

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UK - PA/VA specialist Ateis has supplied a sophisticated PA/VA system to The American Express Community Football Stadium - the new home of Brighton & Hove Albion FC - aka The Seagulls.

The 22,5000 capacity stadium is nestled in the rolling hills of the South Downs, situated just outside Brighton's busy city centre. The club has been without an official home since the sale of its original stadium in 1997. And the launch of this new stadium coincided with Brighton & Hove Albion being promoted to the championship league for the 2010-2011 season.

Working with specialist installer, VCP Services and electrical contractors, NG Bailey, Ateis UK supplied an Ateis IDA VA networked public address - voice alarm system, which drives 38 zones via Ateis SPA series amplifiers. LAP G2 network audio processors are used for control and DSP. The racks were assembled by Ateis at the Devon based HQ

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Malawi - The new Midas PRO2C live audio system has passed its first real world challenge with flying colours, handling front of house at the Lake of Stars Festival on the sandy shores of Lake Malawi. The PRO2 faced extreme temperatures of up to 42 degrees Celsius, an abundance of sand and grit plus a severe fuel crisis, which meant power was only available 30 minutes before the festival opened.

"I really love the PRO2C; it was very easy to get to grips with, and after just 30 minutes I could start the show confidently," says FOH engineer Craig Williams. "I'm more accustomed to the Midas Heritage series and the classic XL3, which I will always love, but the tiny footprint and low weight for a festival like Lake of Stars is perfect. Not needing a rack of outboard saves a huge amount in shipping costs to somewhere like Africa, and even more in sweat when you have to

Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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USA - The PLASA Focus: Austin 2012 floor plan is now live. From today, participating companies and a full programme of events can be found alongside visitor registration facilities and exhibitor application information at www.plasafocus.com/austin.

The two-day event, to be held 22-23 February 2012 at the Renaissance Austin, Texas, is the first of a new style of regional event for North America. Based on the successful PLASA Focus events in Europe, the new regional model seeks to bring world class professional knowledge and high-profile exhibitors to the heart of beautiful Texas hill country.

Confirmed exhibitors include ETC, Arri, GDS, Robe, Rosco, CommuniLux Productions, GLP German Light Products, Daktronics Rigging, Clay Paky, Total Structures, High End Systems, Chauvet, Philips Color Kinetics, A.C.T Lighting, Doug Fleenor Design, Strong Entertainment Lighting, and Secoa, wi

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UK - More than 61,000 people turned up to Cardiff's Millennium Stadium recently to watch the free live streaming of Wales v France in the Rugby World Cup 2011 Semi Final from New Zealand.

This required a hasty sound reinforcement infrastructure to be constructed inside the Stadium for the commentary and live performances, including an EAW KF740 line array speaker system and three big screens.

For Huw 'Buz' Evans and Rob Ashton from Welsh sound rental company ABacoustics, it might have seemed something of a poisoned chalice as they accepted the challenge from local production company Orchard Media & Events Group to rig their EAW PA - and deliver the same outstanding performance from the KF740 system as they had achieved when the two companies last worked together on Ponty's Big Weekend in Pontypridd.

For whilst this would be the biggest production the company had ever

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Mexico - PRG, one of the largest rental providers worldwide, has expanded its stock of RockNet digital audio network devices from Riedel Communications. Riedel, delivered 60 RockNet devices that will be directly used at the opening and closing ceremonies of the XVI Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.

One of the main challenges at the ceremonies of the Pan American Games 2011 is the long distance between the individual positions in the stadium, where up to 300m need to be bridged. Furthermore, the distant master control room, which is located on the first level of box suites in the stadium, also needs to be integrated.

The RockNet installation at the ceremonies consists of 56 various RockNet devices. The audio system that is designed by Pat Baltzell, uses 158 channels of RockNet's 160 channels. The system combines the PA drive system, inputs and monitor sends located at

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UK - London- based lighting rental company Colour Sound Experiment (CSE) continues to build its contract rental business, designing and supplying lighting and rigging for the newly opened Electric live music venue in Brixton, south London - a place with an illustrious history, arguably best known as the legendary Fridge, and before then, The Roxy.

CSE's contract rental packages are proving a highly cost effective and flexible option for busy venue operators, and come complete with quick and excellent technical support and backup.

Electric is only one of a number of current projects for CSE, which also includes The Box in Soho, four venues in Brighton and the Ice Bar in London.

The installation was project managed for CSE by Fletch who designed the rig in conjunction with Cy Kelly from Electric. The creative and practical concept maximises the available space, offering a syst

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UK - The Sound Division Group (Sound Division) has confirmed its appointment as a Bose PRO-Partner this summer.

A significant proportion of Sound Division's business is in the high-end retail market and has established relationships with many well known high street brands, retail stores, hotels and restaurants.

David Graham MD for Sound Division comments: "Bose is synonymous with quality and we are very pleased to have them on-board. We will now be able to offer the Bose brand particularly to the multiple retailers, five star hotels and high class restaurants and bars where Bose are often the preferred choice of speaker system."

This could not come at a better time for Sound Division with the high level of building and refurbishments taking place in London due to the Olympics next year- Quickly out of the starting block the first Bose system has just been installed

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New Zealand - The IRB Rugby World Cup was the biggest sporting event ever to be staged on New Zealand shores. It kicked-off on 9 September 2011 with the Opening Ceremony at Auckland's Eden Park, broadcast to a global television audience estimated at over 50m. An estimated 200,000 people crowded the Auckland waterfront precinct to take in the visual spectacle aptly named All Lit Up. Lighting designer David Eversfield relied on a grandMA2 system for control.

While the show's lighting design in the stadium was created by Paul Collison, who worked with a grandMA2 system as well, Eversfield and the Opticshock team used one grandMA2 light, one grandMA2 onPC and three grandMA 3D for the lights spread across the city.

Eversfield reports, "The waterfront show was pre-programmed using grandMA 3D where extensive use was made of the ability to have complete 3D models of buildi

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UK - Following several years of increased presence in the UK market, Coemar and White Light have announced that a Coemar Care service centre will be available at the White Light London headquarters starting from October 2011. This will offer a wide range of spare parts and service support, enabling White Light to offer a higher degree of support to the growing number of Coemar users.

White Light expects that this initiative will strengthen the relationship with existing and future customers, enabling them to obtain immediate local support, not only at the time of purchase, but throughout the life of the products.

This initiative is part of the Coemar project to support the excellence and innovation of its products, a recent example of which is the Reflection range, with increasing attention to the needs of lighting designers, engineers and planners.

(Jim Evans)

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France - Having lacked a multi-purpose live entertainment venue for many years, the patience of the 176,000 residents of Besançon, eastern France, was rewarded this year with the opening of La Rodia. Featuring two concert halls, a lobby bar, two studios and information / multimedia resources, a Yamaha digital audio system ensures that all of the new facility's users - whether local amateurs or international stars - get a universally high standard of sound.

Covering 2000m2, the project was initiated several years ago by the mayor of Besançon. Designed by architect Claude Denu, the audio system was designed by ATES Thise, based in the eastern suburbs of the town.

La Rodia's management team was already an ATES client, having worked with the company on a previous project. "Despite the initial discussions about La Rodia's audio system taking place three years ago, we advised

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Russia - With the Russian advertising market being one of the fastest growing in the world, there is great potential revenue from the effective use of large format LED screens. Central Moscow is a prime location and a second outdoor Lighthouse screen is now bringing the benefits of its clear, uniform images to a range of advertisers.

Positioned at the major intersection of Kutuzovskiy Prospekt and Krasnopresnenskaya Naberezhnaya, the screen is located in front of the Parliament building and is seen by many thousands of Muscovites each day. It was installed by Newform International, one of the country's most successful advertising companies and is powered by an IMTV system.

Comprising a 12 x 6 panel (15.36 x 5.76m) main screen, plus a 1 x 6 panel (1.28 x 5.76m) vertical strip, all of Lighthouse 10mm panels. The content is streamed using SCALA software with control via the inter

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UK - Blackout provided its new projection screen for Future Cinema, the creators of Secret Cinema which creates large-scale cinematic experiences. The event, California Classics, featured a themed live screening of The Lost Boys and Top Gun in London's Canary Wharf.

Blackout is well known for its truss and rigging services, skills which proved invaluable when it designed and installed a temporary 18m wide by 8m tall screen using the specialist Demopsec screen material, of which Blackout is a UK distributor.

The company provided further infrastructure for the event including the ground support for the screen, the entrance way banner structure, general outdoor waterproof stock drapes across the site and six 10m rigging masts to fly the sound system.

Kevin Monks, Blackout's installations director, said, "This was our second large-scale outside cinema e

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USA - Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures have featured on Paul McCartney's On The Run tour, a series of sell-out, stadium concerts across the USA and Canada. Lighting designer Roy Bennett selected over 80 Clay Paky Sharpy narrow-beam spotlights.

Bennett, whose association with McCartney dates back to 2001, decided to incorporate the Sharpys into his design after seeing them for the first time at the LDI industry show in 2010. "When I first saw the Sharpy, I was really impressed. It's totally new and fresh, yet it reminded me of some of the early classic stuff."

During preparations for the new tour, Bennett decided it was time to update the lighting rig: "We'd been using the same configuration for the last four years, and I wanted to do something cleaner. Everyone agreed that it was time to start changing stuff."

The initial concept sprang from an idea sugge

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USA - Widespread Panic has had a long, fun journey over the last 25 years and celebrated it this fall with a jaunt around the US with Bandit Lites supplying the lighting. Lighting designer Paul Hoffman's set featured arches of truss in a staggered waterfall, loaded with 100 GRNLite LED PARs

Hoffman also utilized Martin MAC III's, a new tool for him. He incorporated VL 3000 Spots, GLP Impressions, and Grand MA consoles and used the new, fully programmable Bandit 5x5 Blinders.

Widespread Panic is an iconic American band with a big following. As they wind down in 2011 they have just announced a limited number of acoustic dates for 2012, known as the Wood Tour.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - The Kooks' front of house engineer Russ Tite has chosen a Midas PRO6 live audio system from SSE Audio for the band's European tour.

Tite's re-acquaintance with Midas analogue during this summer's festival season was the reason he chose the PRO6 for this tour. "I'd been using another brand of digital desk, but this summer I was rocking up to festivals and using an H3000 or XL4, and found I loved it again, it sounded like a console should," he says. "We were almost going to take an XL4, but you can't really fit one on a tour like this, so I decided to try the PRO6, and it sounds incredible."

Having learned his trade as a PA tech working on Midas Heritages, Tite found that operating the PRO6 came naturally. "Once I'd got used to how the POPulation and VCA groups worked, I've been finding it a much quicker way of working," he says. "Now I do

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UAE - Nicolas Kyvernitis Electronics Enterprises, distributor of Midas and Klark Teknik products have recently hosted a Midas Academy prior to the InfoComm exhibition held at the Dubai International Convention Centre.

Over 25 sound professionals attended the one-day event, which highlighted the digital console offering of Midas. The event was also used to unveil the new Midas PRO2 and PRO2C live audio systems.

"Our last academy took place in 2009 so it was time for a follow up event in the Middle East, especially with all the new consoles and other products from Klark Teknik," said Chicco Hiranandani, business development manager at NMK. "Although it was a busy time of the year we still had a good turn out and more importantly great interest in the new consoles."

(Jim Evans)

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Italy - Last summer, a long-awaited jazz festival was staged in Castroreale, an historic Sicilian village in the Messina province. Many international artists performed during the four days of the festival.

The sound system, provided by Tintori della Provvidenza from Castroreale, featured 12 Proel Axiom AX3210P modules and eight EDGE SW121P Subwoofers plus EDGE 12CXP Monitoring, all driven by Powersoft amplifiers K10, Digam Q4004 and Proel HPD3400PFC.

(Jim Evans)

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UK - Adlib's specialist installations division has completed the UK's first live music venue installation with an L-Acoustics KARAi system at the newly refurbished 1000 capacity Leeds University venue, Stylus.

Stylus is located in the basement building complex beneath the famous Leeds Uni Refectory, a gig renowned for hosting some landmark live performances in its day.

Adlib has a history of involvement in various capacities with Leeds University Students' Union (LUSU), who run all the venues on campus, and were one of the companies asked to propose a new sound design and system for Stylus, which was compiled by Adlib's Roger Kirby and John Hughes. Although the project funding process was initiated before his arrival in Leeds, the installation was co-ordinated for the Union by technical manager, Ryan Esson.

The new system - with six KARAis a side - is flown above Stylus's ex

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Switzerland - For establishing a comprehensive communications infrastructure, the organisers of the Breitling Sion Air Show used an integrated communications solution from Riedel Communications. Riedel installed a combination of Riedel Artist digital matrix intercom and trunked digital radio (TETRA). The project was realised on behalf of Swisscom Broadcast AG.

The Breitling Sion Air-Show is one of largest events in Switzerland in 2011. The comprehensive communications infrastructure of the event integrated the organising team, the pilot's radio network or the local security such as police or fire fighters. The system combined Riedel Artist digital matrix intercom and digital trunked radio. At the heart of the installation were three Artist 64 mainframes. They provided the fibre backbone for a total of 16 Artist control panels that were used at various different departments such

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UK - Jason Bruges Studio, in conjunction with Prolyte Group, have designed the world's first digital water feature for the new Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, east London. The design of Westfield Stratford City ensures that the scheme is much more than just a shopping mall and demonstrates a real commitment to public space and a connection to the Olympic Park.

Installation artists, Jason Bruges Studio, were commissioned to create a 'public art' design to be a key feature in Chestnut Plaza, the central public square leading to the Stadium. And they turned to Prolyte Group's creative brand division, Litestructures, to help them realise their vision.

The brief was to create a design that would be "both engaging and sensorial" and was shaped by Westfield's collaboration with the Discover children's charity, which took children around London and asked them what th

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France - Puy du Fou's Cinéscénie is a visually stunning night time spectacle: a show with effects worthy of Las Vegas but located in the heart of the Vendée region in Western France. As in years past, from June to September, the 14,000-capacity open-air amphitheatre was sold out for each and every show this year.

Cinéscénie is considerable feat of engineering, featuring a 23-hectare stage, 1,200 actors, 8,000 costumes and millions of spectators over the years, not to mention unforgettable special effects.

Once again, the park's production team decided to use Martin Professional lighting products to light up the Cinéscénie show and installed 6 MAC III Performance fixtures (complete with framing module) at the edge of the set. The fixtures were supplied by lighting services provider MES, based in Vertou.

The MAC IIIs were instal

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USA - ABC's Dancing with the Stars features a new production design by James Yarnell, set designer, and Simon Miles, lighting designer. A new set with the dance floor raised above the audience provides a 360-degree stage taking full advantage of the studio space including three balcony tiers, and the dancers making their grand entrance through the new tracking centre-stage staircase. The new design also features a new fully integrated Schnick-Schnack-Systems multi-media LED lighting installation in its North American television debut.

"The visual quality of Schnick-Schnack-Systems is really apparent; the vivid colours and effects combinations are almost endless," notes Simon Miles. "Schnick-Schnack is specifically designed for applications like this. The colour consistency, quick response, and great 'on camera' performance is brilliant. The quality is exact

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Europe - When George Michael returned to the stage for 25 Live, the console of choice was the DiGiCo D5 Live. Now, as George travels Europe with Symphonica: The Orchestra Tour! DiGiCo consoles are still an integral part of the audio production, but this time four of the British manufacturer's flagship SD7 digital mixing consoles have been chosen to handle the demands of this production, forming what is currently the biggest SD7 rig on a single optical loop on any touring production.

Symphonica, as Andy 'Baggy' Robinson, Michael's monitor engineer and head of sound for the tour, explains, is "tunes you know and covers you don't, all re-arranged".

"It's the first time George has toured with an orchestra," Baggy adds. "Everything came together very quickly and it sounds amazing."

Three of the SD7s sit in monitor world - one ope

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Australia - After a tireless summer touring the biggest European festivals as well as an extensive run of headline shows, Liverpool-based indie rockers The Wombats have just completed a successful tour of Australia that included several sold-out shows.

JPJ Audio provided the audio set-up for the tour including the Soundcraft Vi6 console specified by the band's sound engineer Dave Samwell.

"When I started my career as a sound engineer I used Soundcraft products all the time and so I really feel at home with them," remarked Samwell. "My first impression of the Vi6 was that it was the first digital console that laid out everything you need right in front of you. You didn't need to look around pages or anything as the whole mix was in front of you. But most importantly, I thought it was the best sounding digital console on the market without spending insane amounts

  1. Robe stars at the Innibos Festival
  2. Sasha on the road with Xone mixer
  3. Black Light in high profile fashion shoot
  4. AP Security completes third Tour of Britain
  5. D.A.S. Audio's successful summer season
  6. DVA T12 on demo in Spain & Holland
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Astera - Large MPU - June 2025
Sennheiser - MPU - June 2025

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