Thailand - The Office of the Permanent Secretary for Defence recently upgraded its headquarters with Harman Professional Solutions AV, lighting and control systems.
Part of Thailand’s Ministry of Defence, the Office of the Permanent Secretary is responsible for determining strategic goals, executing plans, drafting policy and the inspection and monitoring of the Royal Thai Armed Forces.
Occupying a grand, nine-story building with multiple wings outside Bangkok, the organisation’s headquarters includes a multipurpose hall which can seat 1,500 and be divided into two separate spaces on demand. To ensure world-class sound, video, lighting and control for presentations and events, the Office of the Permanent Secretary deployed a range of solutions from JBL Professional, Crown, Soundcraft, BSS, Martin Professional and AMX.
"The client needed cutting-edge AV and st

South Africa - Days before lockdown, thousands of fans gathered at the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria to celebrate the 2020 edition of RAMfest, South Africa’s music festival for all things alternative.
This years’ line up included some of South Africa’s most popular alternative bands, including Facing the Gallows, Peasant, Man as Machine, Newtown Knife Gang, The Valley, Stoker, and Truth & It’s Burden. Highlights of the event included a much-anticipated reunion show by South African rock legends, The Van Coke Kartel and USA-based death metal giants, The Black Dahlia Murder, who headlined the one-day festival.
Festival organisers Real Alternative Music (RAM) once again contracted Stage Effects and Blue Array Productions to provide technical services for the event. Stage Effects’ Erik de Bruin has been working with RAM on the festival for several years a

USA - Mirror balls have been used to create atmosphere in dancehalls and nightclubs for almost a century, and became synonymous with the ‘70s disco explosion. Dance Studio Vol. 1, the latest new addition to the nightlife scene in Chicago’s River North neighbourhood, takes this lighting staple to a new level by filling the ceiling above its dancefloor completely with ADJ mirror balls of various sizes.
The new nightclub and event space is a renovation of the ‘dearly departed’ Studio Paris, which closed in January 2019 after an eight-year run. With a totally redesigned interior, Dance Studio Vol. 1 is a 350-person venue that hosts live music, DJs and ‘surprise entertainment’. It features a lighting system that was designed and installed by Craft Lighting, a Chicago-based AV design and integration company.
Craft Lighting supplied and installed a total of 470 A

USA - High End Systems has announced new live events via its Study Hall programme, featuring webinars, Q&As, and round tables led by both employee experts and friends around the industry. “The content will be geared toward all our audiences around the globe, including dedicated events for just our dealers and reps - so be sure to log in to MyETC to see all the upcoming listings!” suggests HES.
This week’s schedule includes: Thursday, 2 April, 10:00 am CDT - Intro to Controls Networking - “It's all about making meaningful connections... between the components of your lighting system! ETC NYC's Nick Gonsman presents a special intro to the theory and practice of controls networking.”
Thursday, 2 April, 12:00 pm CDT - Let’s Go Hog Wild - “Join Maegan Wilson and Noah Allen, product support specialists for High End Systems, as they will cover

UK - Stage Electrics has won the contract to complete the technical fit out of production lighting, sound, video, comms and stage engineering systems at the new purpose built, fully accessible, Brixtonhouse Theatre (formerly Ovalhouse Theatre) which forms part of the Somerleyton Road Project in the heart of Brixton.
The new building will have two performance venues and seven multi-use accessible studios and a whole new inventory of equipment and is set to at the end of 2020.
Stage Electrics will again be working with main contractor Galliford Try with who they previously completed the Southampton New Art Complex.

UK - Technical services provider White Light (WL) has taken delivery of a number of Powersoft’s T Series amplifier platforms from the company’s UK distributor, CUK Audio.
The purchase, which took place between July and October of last year, included 31 T604s and three T602s, and was made after the company had a chance to get some hands-on time with the products at WL’s warehouse.
WL’s senior audio technical project manager, Harry Saxton McCann, says: “CUK’s product demos were brilliant, and the training was ideal to bring our freelance and full-time staff up to date with Powersoft’s latest offerings. A lot of the engineers have commented on how clean the PA sounds when being driven by Powersoft amplifier platforms, and the ability to keep everything digital over Dante and AES has been very beneficial.”
Available in both 4-channel and 2-channel ve

The Netherlands - Jack-Rotterdam is a restaurant where 30 years of dance music and fine food coalesce.
When former techno DJ-turned restaurant and hotel concept developer Jack planned to open to his own house concept eatery, Amate Audio’s Benelux distributor, Imagination AV (also based in Rotterdam) was charged with specifying and installing a sound system throughout the long beautifully arched venue, that would meet the demands of both dining and dancing with equal measures of quality.
Power and performance on the dance floor come courtesy of eight Nítid N6P 2-way systems and a pair of N12WP subs. The most compact Nítid series model, the N6P’s frequency response and high SPL output is astounding for cabinet of its size, due to a combination of advanced design and components that includes a 6” carbon fibredriver that enables the N6P to deliver a response akin

Poland - One of the most spectacular and well-equipped theatres in Europe, with a seating capacity of over 2,000, The Grand Theatre - National Opera (Polish: Teatr Wielki - Opera Narodowa (TW-ON)) is a ‘must-visit’ cultural hub in Warsaw, housing a theatre complex, museum, opera company, and the Polish National Ballet all under one roof.
Most recently, its Młynarski Hall, also known as the Chamber Music Hall, has been updated with an L-Acoustics Kiva II system, offering “unparalleled sound” versatility to the venue’s extensive programme of concerts, ballets, operas, and special events.
When it was time to upgrade this notable venue's PA system, the team invited the top AV suppliers to participate in the tendering process.
The team consisted of the theatre's Zdzisław Staszewski, Łukasz Baska and Michał Polański. They were responsible for conducting

USA - Community Christian Church in Tamarac, FL, has been livestreaming Sunday services for over two years, but until recently, they always were conducted before a room filled with worshippers. When concerns about Covid-19 prompted the church to hold services inside an empty building, its tech team, which includes media pastor Bill Kelly, director of communications Vinny Cesar and visual arts director Kevis Mulchan, began revising its streaming strategy.
“We felt that not having people in the church would necessitate some changes,” said Mulchan. “Our initial thought was that it would not be good to show a room full of empty seats on our online broadcasts. However, by the second week of doing this, we reversed course, coming to realise that it was actually a good thing to show the vacant space, since this emphasized that the church is not the building itself, but the i

World - Challenging times call for extraordinary responses and for DJ EZ, a man not unfamiliar with marathon sets, what could be better to put smiles on faces than to set up, plug in and play for 24 hours on the spin?
DJ EZ’s response to the current unprecedented worldwide circumstances, was to team up with the My Kind Deed website to lift people’s spirits whilst they observed social distancing and self-isolation due to the Covid-19 pandemic. From 6pm GMT on 28 March through to 6pm GMT on 29 March, DJ EZ streamed a 24-hour set via Boiler Room TV. My Kind Deed is a project that encourages positivity and kindness as a way to promote better mental health and general wellbeing in society.
It wasn’t the first time that this hugely respected DJ has put himself out there to give something back to his community. Four years ago, DJ EZ raised £60,000 for Cance

Australia - Progressive metal band Tool have just completed the southern-hemisphere leg of their extensive and technically ambitious arena touring schedule, supporting the launch of the album, Fear Inoculum. As they headed to Australia and New Zealand, it was confirmed that the tour’s TiMax SoundHub-driven 3D surround sound system - that started out as something of an experiment - would continue for the rest of the tour as it had ‘become part of the show’.
The system design - a distributed d&b arrangement of main left and right, plus overheads focused vertically down forward and back, rear surround hangs and upper seating ‘front’ channels - is the result of extensive research by the band’s system engineer, Liam Halpin, to realise the suggestion of FOH engineer, Alan Hopkinson, that their audience would love ‘sounds to appear from different places aro

UK - This year’s Buckinghamshire Music Trust (BMT) Battle of the Bands (BOTB) contest for young aspiring musicians saw two leading pro audio manufacturers provide a top tier concert touring spec. By being able to broadcast their sound through a premier touring PA, on a Dante backbone, will have taken the 12 bands competing in the final into new territory.
The two High Wycombe-based manufacturers concerned were Martin Audio and Focusrite Pro, both now under the umbrella of parent company, Focusrite plc.
It was Stephen Button, Focusrite’s EMEA channel marketing executive, who established the relationship with Buckinghamshire Music Trust (BMT) several years ago. It started when he helped them out as a local musician with their monthly event Guitari Lounge, an open mic night created for under-18-year-olds.
BMT evolved from teaching young people ‘traditional’

USA - Boston is a town with many traditions and one festive custom that Bostonians have enjoyed since 1975 is First Night Boston, New England’s biggest New Year’s Eve celebration. Produced by Conventures, Inc., this past season’s festivities were lit by Port Lighting Systems using Elation weatherproof luminaires. First Night Boston is an event the New Hampshire-based lighting specialists have worked for many years.
As veterans of First Night Boston and other outdoor events, Port Lighting Systems knew the secret to its success would be carefully selecting equipment and crew. “We tapped team members with experience lighting in all weather conditions, and chose a combination of outdoor-rated fixtures, equipment designed to protect fixtures from the elements, and back-up gear should anything fail,” says Port Lighting’s Graham Edmondson, who serve

Canada/Europe - Montreal-based visual design practice Luz Studio, headed by Matthieu Larivée, created the eye-catching production design at the core of French-Canadian singer and impressionist Véronic DiCaire’s Showgirl tour, which had a very successful launch in Canada in December 2019, then toured arenas in Europe, before the coronavirus pandemic took hold and curtailed all live events.
The Showgirl concept saw the artist delivering material written / performed by around 50 female vocalists - from Dua Lipa to Celine Dion - in their style and voices, backed by six dancers and four musicians.
Matthieu proposed a harmonious and integrated set, lighting and video design which featured Robe moving lights at the centre, with 28 MegaPointes and 12 Spiiders, plus six BMFL Blades and two BMFL Spots being used with a RoboSpot remote follow-spotting system. <

UK - Back to the Future The Musical arrived in 2020 at the Manchester Opera House on 20 February. The 1985 movie and pop culture phenomenon has been transported to the stage by the film's original creative team of Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis. Sending audiences on a ride through time with a hit music score, and featuring the famous DeLorean, production manager Simon Marlow, brought Unusual Rigging on board to handle the complex rigging requirements of the show.
Unusual Rigging was contracted to supply all the rigging - both for the load in and the run of the show. Marlow explains: “Unusual's Emily Egleton has been at the helm; we have a great relationship, having worked closely on a number of shows together including Bat out of Hell the Musical and And Juliet. She was tasked with designing all the diversions and the hanging plot for Back to the Future

USA - For those missing the comradery and exuberance of a live concert experience, long-time Bandit Lites client Garth Brooks offered some words of encouragement amidst a one-hour Facebook live stream that was so popular, it apparently kept crashing the social media site. Brooks was recently honoured as this year's recipient of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
“Garth stands alone in music at this point,” said Bandit Lites founder and chair, Michael T. Strickland. “Never has anyone been so impactful, yet so giving to the world as a whole. There is never a cause or a moment that Garth does not only rise to the occasion, but he sets the bar. Garth and Trisha provided a free concert for anyone that cared to listen, an incredible move that was 100% them giving of themselves to a public in need of a moment of relief. Thank you Garth and Trisha; we ca

Europe - As the industry is facing an unprecedented down-time as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, French lighting manufacturer Ayrton wants to help break up the monotony by offering an opportunity for creatives who are self-isolating.
“Let’s channel that creative energy into something positive and fun," says the company. "Show us what you can do by participating in the Ayrton Boredom Buster!”
To get involved, create a show to the song of your choosing using your favourite pre-visualisation software and an ‘Ayrton only’ virtual lighting rig, and submit your video, mailing address and shirt size via email to bb@ayrton.eu with the subject Ayrton Boredom Buster.
In return, you could receive swag and an opportunity to be featured on Ayrton’s social media pages.
Ayrton is also urging people to follow its social media pages for the latest

Curaçao - Reaching 56.4m above the crystal blue waters of St. Anna Bay, the Queen Juliana Bridge - the highest such structure in the Caribbean - affords spectacular views of this nation’s capital city, Willamsted and its beaches. On the evening of Sunday, 22 March, it also offered an inspiring view of the future, when it served as the centrepiece of Light The Sky in Curaçao.
Initiated on the island nation by Ian Sillie, the project, which originated in The Netherlands, was built around the theme Let’s Inspire Hope Together. With beams from a collection of Chauvet Professional Maverick and Rogue fixtures cutting through the dark sky, the display served as a reminder to all that the creative spirit that runs through Curaçao will continue to shine brightly long after the coronavirus has faded into history.
Massive Productions was contacted by Sillie

UK - Following his India Idol win, the Mewat-born Salman Ali went on to record songs for popular TV programmes and Bollywood films, in addition to cutting his own records. On 15 February, just weeks before the prohibition of live events took effect, he reached another milestone, appearing for his first solo concert in the UK before a sold-out crowd at SSE Arena Wembley.
Providing big bold looks that matched the budding star’s soaring performance, which was produced by Rock On Music, was a sweeping Roosevelt Dsouza lighting design that featured 42 Chauvet Professional moving LED fixtures supplied by Pro System Services.
Filling the air with vividly coloured crossing beam patterns, and accentuating his client’s performance with bursts of white audience lighting, Dsouza endowed the venerable arena with a sense of energy that captured the moment. Balancing the

Switzerland - Stagelight, one of Switzerland’s leading production rental houses, recently provided a Green-GO event comms solution as part of the full technical production package for a high-profile professional wrestling show at Zurich’s multi-purpose Hallenstadion.
The event was another success for Green-GO’s digital intercom over Ethernet technology, which has become a firm favourite in the events industry.
With the show production built around the central wrestling ring, Stagelight’s team designed a 360° sound system on a completely flown rig, with no ground support to block the all-important sightlines. With four followspot positions located high in the stands surrounding the ring, the intercom solution had to be distributed to the furthest reaches of the venue, via both wired and wireless beltpacks.
The system fielded by Stagelight was part of a re

Norway - Design and Architecture Norway, known as DOGA, describes itself as a driving force for sustainable value creation through design and architecture. The organisation looks to facilitate collaboration between creative talents and businesses and work to strengthen the role of design and architecture in shaping “the Norway of tomorrow”.
DOGA’s Machine Hall building, which dates back to 1898, hosts events to advance this mission. In any given week the schedule might include conferences and seminars or live music sets and video screenings.
Because of the values core to DOGA, designing an audio system for the space meant not only creating a versatile system capable of quality in spoken word and live performance, but also careful consideration to the tenets of good design. To achieve both, Norwegian distributor Benum utilised Renkus-Heinz digitally steerable loud

USA - Clair Global is refocussing efforts to help communities and government officials by providing IT, networking and communications services for temporary disaster relief structures made necessary by the coronavirus outbreak.
With more than 50 years in the live event industry, Clair already works alongside emergency service agencies to provide network connectivity and emergency communications for the events they support.
The company is now partnering with Mountain Productions, Inc. to integrate Clair’s turnkey solutions and custom designs into Mountain’s large-scale temporary hospitals and disaster relief centres.
“When we launched the MTN Emergency Services platform, Clair Global immediately heeded the call, and we are proud to be working with their world-class organization and unique solutions to address this global crisis,” says Ricky Rose, CEO at

USA - Pigeons Playing Ping Pong thrives on contact with their large, loyal base of hardcore fans. Feeding off the energy of the crowd powers the psychedelic funk jam band through a relentless touring schedule that includes about 200 shows a year. But a wildly cheering audience was nowhere to be seen when the irrepressible quartet took to a temporary stage set up at Showtime Sound’s warehouse in Baltimore on 14 March for a live streamed concert on nugs.tv.
Nevertheless, ‘the flock’, as the quartet’s aficionados are affectionately called, got a healthy dosage of Pigeons magic thanks to 90 minutes of free-flowing music, accompanied by a lively Manny Newman designed light show that featured Chauvet Professional fixtures.
Covering the stage with bold vibrant colours, Newman evoked the band’s unabashedly modern-hip image on stage while still keeping his looks mana

Latvia - The Adazi Cultural Centre is a modern and popular institution that serves numerous community functions with events such as concerts, exhibitions, conferences and many other educational experiences. Not only do residents of the region love the Adazi Cultural Centre, it’s also highly valued by Latvian pro audio industry professionals, popular musicians and concert producers.
The building was commissioned in 2010, unfortunately, the sound system originally installed in the 400-seat hall was outdated and could not provide the necessary sound coverage across the hall or up in the balcony area. Enter Clair Brothers.
Maris Vitols, head of the Adazi Cultural Centre technical department, knew an upgrade was needed and began gathering vital information about high-quality, modern sound system solutions that would meet modern expectations and deliver the kind of sound t

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