Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
Doughty - Banner - ABTT (27 May - 5 June)

Business

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South Africa - Insane Sound & Lighting is a busy technical production and design company based in Cornubia, Durban, run by the charismatic Vimal Rawjee, who took the name from his DJ days when he earned a reputation for cramming "insane" amounts of audio kit into all types of imaginable - and unimaginable - spaces and making lots of noise!

Starting as a sound company, Insane added a lighting division in 2010 - and later LED / video - to ensure they can supply top quality full technical service and design packages to their clients.

The company now has over 100 Robe fixtures in stock, including around 40 moving heads and over 60 x LEDForce 18 PARs.

Vimal and his team - 11 full time staff and three regular casuals presently - deliver a wide variety of corporate shows, pumping dance and EDM events and weddings.

Weddings - and particularly Indian weddings - are a mass

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UK - AML Event Lighting Hire from Dundee recently supplied a whole host of Showtec Lighting Fixtures for the Freshers Ball at Dundee University.

The products included Pixel Bar 12 'pixel-mapping' battens and iB-16R moving heads - part of the Infinity Family from Highlite International. The whole Event was programmed by LD Lewis Day.

Alistair McCready, MD of AML Event Lighting Hire comments: "The iB-16R's have an incredible light output. They tick all the boxes expected from such a high-performance moving fixture. Once again we received first class support from Dave Hartley, Ryan Hussey and the team at Highlite UK."

Doughty - Banner - ABTT (27 May - 5 June)

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UK - Last Saturday, the 2015 Rugby World Cup drew to a dramatic close, with New Zealand beating Australia at Twickenham Stadium. Throughout the tournament, White Light provided the lighting, sound and production support for various aspects of the competition, helping to make this year's Rugby World Cup one of the biggest yet.

Following a year of constant expansion, WL was able to offer the Rugby World Cup a whole range of its expert production services. This included constructing three studio and two pitch-side sets for the ITV Sport Team. These were then toured to various stadiums across the country, where the WL team was on-site to help recreate the set-up at each venue.

WL was also called upon to fulfil a similar role on the BT World Wheelchair Rugby Challenge which was broadcast on ITV. With the tournament being held at the Copper Box at the Olympic Park, London, WL was on

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Denmark - Lighting manufacturer SGM A/S has filed for bankruptcy in Aarhus, Denmark, according to reports in the Danish media.

SGM Lighting, owned since February 2012 by entrepreneur Peter Johansen, currently employs 85 people in Aarhus, according to Danish television station TV2, and the majority of the staff have now been sent home while the company's situation is clarified.

TV2 reported that the company's legal representative, Christian Jul Madsen, has said that several interested parties have submitted offers to buy the entire company.

Originally an Italian lighting brand, SGM was acquired by Italian pro audio manufacturer RCF in April 2009. In November 2010, at a press event in central London, RCF president Arturo Vicari introduced Peter Johansen as the new head of R&D for SGM. Johansen was already well-known in the professional lighting industry as the founder of Marti

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UK - London's bi-annual Festival of Life is a major religious gathering of the global Pentecostal Redeemed Christian Church of God. Attracting 40,000 worshippers to ExCel London, the event features a dynamic mix of music, dance, drama and gospel.

SFL Group has provided sound reinforcement to the event for the last eight years and this October they designed an L-Acoustics Kara sound system, while also deploying an L-Acoustics X Series stage monitoring system for the first time in the UK.

London ExCel is a difficult venue, the sound system needs to cover 20,000m2 of highly reverberant space, yet deliver audio clarity to each and every congregant. The highly controlled directivity of L-Acoustics Kara allows SFL to focus the sound away from the metal roof structure, keeping it only where it's needed.

"The best way to deal with a reverberant space it is to create a direct so

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UK - Buckinghamshire New University Audio and Music Production student Owen Brown is the proud winner of an annual scholarship award from leading audio manufacturer Sennheiser UK.

Owen, 26, from East Ham, London, received the scholarship based on his academic performance in his first year and plans to use the money to pay for recording software to continue to develop his skills.

The scholarship is part of an education partnership between the University, in Queen Alexandra Road, High Wycombe, and Sennheiser. which has its UK HQ in Marlow.

Five students with the highest first year grade profiles were shortlisted and interviewed by Phil Cummings, Sennheiser's marketing projects manager.

Owen, who attended Barking & Dagenham College of Further Education before working in retail for a number of years prior to starting his degree, said the scholarship would be 'a huge help' in h

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USA - Once a bedroom community for Chicago, the village of Bolingbrook, Illinois has developed far beyond its suburban origins. While its close proximity to the metropolis still plays a large role in its economy, Bolingbrook has created infrastructure that encourages a sense of community and provides its 73,000-plus residents with plenty of opportunities for recreation right in town

A good example is the Bolingbrook Performing Arts Centre (BPAC), which provides a beautiful outdoor venue for everything from local theatre to national music acts. Built 16years ago, BPAC recently replaced its original sound reinforcement system with a Danley Sounds Labs design that includes new Danley amps, processing, mains, and subwoofers. Critically, the Danley system ably meets all of the village's requirements while costing less than half the cost of other manufacturer's designs, which allowed

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UK - Illuminate Design was the chosen supplier to renew the dimmer system at the Lakeside Theatre on the University of Essex Campus.

To replace a dimmer system that was over 35 years old, Illuminate Design's technical sales manager Ken Berreen specified three of Zero 88's successful Chilli Bypass Racks to be installed. These were chosen for the flexibility they provide.

The project also included new circuits being added in the venue along with new control lines and additional other works to the DMX infrastructure plus the addition of a DMX distribution system.

Commenting on the work carried out at his venue, technical manager Harry Harris said, "The recent installation of our new dimmers and DMX infrastructure by Illuminate Design couldn't have gone better and working with the company was an absolute pleasure., They managed the project perfectly from start to finish and

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UK - The Plaisterers' Hall is the largest and one of the finest Livery Halls in London. Opened in 1972 and situated in the heart of the City of London at One London Wall, it reflects the grandeur of a bygone era but in an ultra-modern setting. The décor is neo-classical in style, with designs created by Robert Adam in the 18th century faithfully reproduced in great detail both on plaster and wood.

Recently, the Great Hall underwent a facilities upgrade, including replacement of the sound system and the addition of touch screen control. Bose pro partner, Whitwam, who installed the original system back in 2004 when a major renovation took place, were asked to look at upgrading the sound to a high quality speech and recorded music system to be used for various different functions including formal dining, corporate events, parties and wedding receptions.

Following a client

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Denmark - As the city's main stage for operetta, opera, musicals and ballet, Vienna's Volksoper is renowned throughout the world for the quality and diversity of its performances. It is also an incredibly busy theatre with some 300 performances of around 35 different productions staged every year between September and June.

Delivering such a high volume of performances requires a great deal of effort from everyone involved, especially the sound department.

"To cope with such an intense workload, our sound equipment has to be flexible, durable and very hard working," says Martin Lukesch, head of sound and multimedia at Volksoper Vienna. "This is why we use DPA microphones. For many years they have played an important part in providing the amplification for the orchestra, for actors in musicals and for actors and singers in every kind of show. Opera and operettas,

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Finland - Helsinki is well known for its excellent nightlife and vibrant and exciting rock bar scene. One of the newest to bars to open in the city is The Riff, co-owned by Jussi 69, a member of The 69 Eyes, one of Finland's best known rock bands.

With such an illustrious name at the helm and the music offering being such a key attraction for the venue, special consideration was given to the choice of audio system, especially the type of loudspeaker required. Jussi 69 recognised that the venue's success would hinge on this choice and his team chose the Genelec 4000 Series as the loudspeaker with the right combination of performance and looks for the venue.

The Jussi69's partners in the venture are Veikka Moilanen and Oskari Kovalainen, two familiar faces from the Helsinki bar scene. Already a radio host Jussi69 is excited about branching out into bar ownership: "I have to

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UK - On 21 October, the historic surroundings of Wilton's Music Hall played host to the Homage to T.S. Eliot evening. The event was a fundraiser for the London Library and featured readings of Eliot's work by renowned actors such as Fiona Shaw, Jeremy Irons and Sir Tom Stoppard, on what was also the fiftieth anniversary of the poet's death. With more than 250 invited guests in attendance, WL was called upon to provide the lighting support on what was a special occasion.

The entire performance was lit by lighting designer Mike Gunning. He states, "The aim of the evening was to raise funds for the London Library in order to allow free access for those not in a position to purchase membership. As it marked 50 years since T.S. Eliot's death, along with the fact he was president of the library, it seemed rather fitting to base the evening around readings of his work."

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Oman - German manufacturer Aimline Audio is further expanding its presence in the Middle East with the appointment of Pulse Information Technologies as its exclusive distributor in Oman.

The distributor is credited with possessing a wealth of integration experience, having been involved with many high profile projects in the Middle East region ranging from house of worship installations to conferencing systems and broadcast solutions.

Hitesh Bhimani, AV specialist at Pulse comments, "The Aimline product range fully complements Pulse's current offerings for addressing acoustically and critical audio installations .This agreement establishes a strong partnership with Aimline and enforces the mutual ambition we share to provide our clients with innovative AV products using the latest technology."

"We have been looking for a more targeted pro audio distributor wit

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UK - Bristol-based lighting, rigging and video rental specialist Fineline is the first UK company to purchase one of Avolites' new Arena lighting consoles - serial number 001.

Fineline has been a big investor in Avolites control, particularly in the last two years, explains MD Rob Sangwell, with a selection of Tiger Touch, Tiger Touch Pro, Quartz and Pearl Expert ranges in their hire stock which are constantly in use. "Avo has always been a powerful and simple to use control surface," says Rob, "And apart from making some of the best 'live' consoles on the market, the service and backup has also been fantastic."

Stuart England, Fineline's operations co-ordinator said, "The Arena ticks all the boxes for us. It builds from the popular Tiger Touch operating architecture with extra faders to retain that old school buskability for which Avo desks are famous

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UK - London's respected arts centre, the Barbican, has invested in Robe DL4S LED profile and Pointe multi-functional moving lights which are integral to a new moving light rig installed in the 1,943 capacity Barbican Hall concert venue.

The new rig has been designed by Jason Kew, technical supervisor in charge of lighting in the Barbican's Music Department, and the fixtures were specified by Jason and Mark Bloxsidge, technical manager (music events), following an evaluation which involved the whole technical team at the Barbican Hall.

The order was delivered via leading UK sales and rental company White Light and Robe UK, co-ordinated by Jonathan Haynes for White Light following a tender process led by the Barbican's Luke Freeborough, technical manager (projects).

The Barbican Hall was originally built as an orchestral venue when the Centre opened in 1982. In addition to bei

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UK - HSL supplied moving lights and LED screen for the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich's recent production of the classic Cy Coleman musical, Sweet Charity.

Lighting designer Nick Richings and set / costume designer Libby Watson added plenty of colour, drama and atmosphere to the work, proving just how much can be achieved with a little bit of technology and copious amounts of imagination.

HSL's project manager John Slevin commented, "The budget was expedient and the tech / rehearsal timeframe short, but everyone involved worked as a team utilising creativity and ingenuity to ensure a truly excellent production that was a big hit with audiences."

Nick and Libby worked closely on developing the whole visual concept with director Pete Rowe, setting it in the 1960s underlined with a strong Pop Art aesthetic, together with all the boldness, stylized text / images an

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Brazil - For the sixth Brazilian edition and the 30th anniversary of the original Rock in Rio, production company Gabisom Audio Equipment debuted its new MLA system on the Palco Sunset stage which featured artists such as Korn, John Legend, Magic, Deftones, Steve Vai and Al Jarreau across the mix of rock and pop line-ups.

The purchase, comprising 46 x MLA elements, two MLD Downfill cabinets and 24 MLX subs, followed a very successful trial of MLA at Rock in Rio, USA last May. At the Las Vegas event every FOH engineer had been very complimentary about the system saying it was one of the easiest shows they'd done.

Gabisom has been in charge of the sound at Rock in Rio since 2001 including all 14 international editions and the latest incarnate followed a similar equipment list as to the Las Vegas event. Sixteen MLA enclosures with one MLD per side along with 32 MLX subwoofers gro

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Sound Investment - The British music industry invested nearly £500m in new music in 2014, with the signing up of new artists by major labels up 30%, according to data released by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and Music Publishers Association (MPA). The number of new acts signed by major labels last year hit a five-year high of 156, the figures say.

The 156 new artists signed by Sony Music, Universal Music and Warner Music was 26 more than in 2013, and just 12 fewer than the recent peak in 2009 of 164 new deals. Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the BPI and Brit Awards, said, "It's no fluke that 2014 was such an outstanding year for British music. Alongside the artists themselves, the passion and commitment labels show in unearthing, nurturing and developing the next wave of talent is one of the main reasons our music is the envy of the world right now."<

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USA - Audinate has announced the immediate worldwide availability of its new Dante Via software. Having already revolutionized the delivery of audio-over-IP with its widely adopted Dante networking solution, Audinate now makes it even easier for end-users, integrators, consultants and sound engineers across a wide range of markets to experience the advantages of Dante-based networking.

The Dante Via software connects any audio application or device from your computer to a Dante network. Dante Via enables USB, FireWire or Thunderbolt devices - including microphones, legacy mixing consoles or I/O boxes - to join any Dante audio network. The new software also allows a Dante network to be created without the need for dedicated Dante hardware, providing a straightforward approach to routing audio using only computers. Sporting an intuitive, easy to use 'drag and drop'-style interface

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Papua New Guinea - Optical Audio is a boutique provider of high-end audio processing, communications and control equipment working out of Melbourne, Australia. Technical Director Jason Read heads up a full time team of three employees, working with a team of regular contractors on the big gigs.

"We supply a service, managed within our current staffing, that ensures we deliver the product," explained Jason. "We're there from quote, to design, to delivery and we're the guys on the ground doing the job. When we started eight years ago, we were supplying backbone PA equipment like drive gear and processing. Communications became a natural progression from our work on fireworks and show control systems. Comms came naturally to us, and we've stared to specialise, and take on high profile projects."

Optical Audio has chosen equipment from Clear-Com to fill their c

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USA - As technical director of The Heights Baptist Church in Richardson, Texas, Bobby Dennis is accustomed to creating big concert looks on stage. Leading Christian artists and Dove Award winners like Aaron Shust and Point of Grace have regularly performed at this dynamic church outside Dallas, which counts international recording artist Sixteen Cities among its worship leaders.

Yet when the time came to upgrade The Heights' lighting system, Dennis was intent on going beyond the church's concert tradition by putting together a rig that could do more than animate music with bold bright hues. He also wanted lighting with the depth and flexibility to create engaging scenes for his church's sermon series. Being on a limited budget, he needed to do this with as few fixtures as possible. He accomplished this ambitious goal with the multi-tasking Rogue RH1 Hybrid from Chauvet Professio

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Italy - Nile Rodgers performed an evening of disco music at the Lucca Summer Festival with percussionist and drummer Sheila E., who has worked with Prince for more than a decade and who thrilled Barack and Michelle Obama during her recent show at the White House.

Italian lighting designer Massimo Tomasino, who followed the artist on his 2010 tour, designed the lights and counted on Clay Paky equipment for its reliability and reputation.

In every city where the concert was hosted in the UK (London, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester and Birmingham), the production team had no difficulty in procuring the same Clay Paky lights or, at least, equally effective alternatives made by the same manufacturer.

Tomassino himself cannot hide his pride when he says "I am glad Clay Paky is an Italian name since it is highly appreciated abroad." He put eight Alpha Spot HPE 1200s on the bac

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Canada - Ottawa's Centrepointe Theatre has become the first Canadian venue to permanently install a Meyer Sound Leopard linear sound reinforcement system. The system is the third generation of Meyer Sound systems to be installed in the 954-seat theatre, which has relied on the durability and longevity of Meyer Sound since its opening in 1988.

"The coverage of Leopard is incredibly uniform," reports Neil Collier, senior project manager for Ottawa-based Wall Sound, Inc., which designed and installed the system. "With the same evenness in the upper and under balcony as in the rest of the house, every seat is a great seat. In addition, the flown 900-LFC low-frequency control elements have opened up sightlines for extreme front row side seats that were formerly obstructed by stage-stacked subwoofers."

According to Matt Lamarche, production supervisor for Centrep

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USA - Nashville based lighting and visuals designer Chris Lisle was invited by production manager Jim Dorroh of LEO Events to light seven performance stages at the inaugural Kaaboo festival recently staged in Del Mar, California.

Chris specified 20 x Robe BMFL Blades as a major part of the lighting scheme for the Sunset Cliffs (main) Stage of the three day event, a music 'experience' and a specially curated 'sound voyage', combining rock music and some EDM with comedy, food, contemporary art, great vibes and premium amenities.

Chris worked closely with co-designer Erik Parker and assembled a hand-picked team of lighting programmer / operators to run and coordinate lighting for all the stages. Music headliners included The Killers, No Doubt, Snoop Dog, The Zac Brown Band and many, many more.

The goal was to make each stage look different and dynamic while keeping everything u

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