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29 October 2024

UK - Romesh Ranganathan recently completed a series of seven stand-up shows in UK arenas as part of his Hustle world tour. Ranganathan’s set focused on complaints about life’s irritations viewed from his curmudgeonly perspective.

For the tour, Liverpool-based event production specialists Adlib supplied a Coda Audio system based around the company’s flagship AiRAY line array. Adlib has previously deployed Coda for tours by many of the leading lights of British comedy, including Russell Howard, Joe Lycett and Jack Whitehall.

System tech and audio crew chief, Jethro Hall comments: “The Coda system is tried and tested for this kind of show and has proved itself time and again. It’s got lots of output, is very flexible and scalable and is easy to work with. The enclosures are ultra-compact which makes them ideal for minimising the impac

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29 October 2024

Canada - Avant-garde director Atom Egoyan has staged several iterations of Richard Strauss’ opera Salome, inspired by Oscar Wilde’s play, in turn inspired by the Biblical account of the titular character and John the Baptist. Egoyan accompanied his latest version – performed by the Canadian Opera Company with the feature film Seven Veils.

It stars Amanda Seyfried as Jeanine, an opera director who is putting on Salome. The film effectively places a real opera performance inside a fictional milieu, and it fell to mixer Trevor Goulet to integrate the two worlds. Goulet, who also recently completed work on David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds as well as sound for additional photography on the new M. Night Shyamalan film Trap, employed Lectrosonics’ latest generation of digital wireless.

DBSM belt packs tra

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29 October 2024

Germany - YouTube star Naomi Jon’s first major headline tour has sold out music halls and concert venues across Germany and there are more dates being added, with international venues promised.

Naomi’s sound engineer is Flo Herkert, who has been working with her since her first ever gig. Herkert is responsible for the front of house mix and oversees the on-stage monitor mix. A keen advocate of KLANG, Herkert bought Germany’s first KLANG:konduktor immersive in-ear-monitoring system in 2017, followed by a :vokal system and is now using his KLANG:vokal+ system with a DiGiCo SD11i for the Villain of your Dreams tour.

“I’ve always been interested in new technologies and KLANG immediately caught my attention,” he says. “I attended a presentation and training session where I met Phil Kamp. We quickly became firm friends and have even

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29 October 2024

South Africa - Established in 1946, the Uniting Reform Church in Southern Africa (URCSA) is committed to creating welcoming spaces where people can build community and grow spiritually. With a focus on meaningful worship experiences and outreach programs, URCSA recently expanded its Atteridgeville campus with a significant extension of its existing building.

The goal was to boost community engagement and provide a purpose-built auditorium space for events, services and gatherings. The team at URCSA sought close collaboration from the beginning to help them achieve their aims, and a partnership with Stage Audio Works (SAW) proved pivotal.

“This extension is not just about expanding the space, but about creating a lasting legacy for the community,” explains Sekgwari Matsena, technical team coordinator at URCSA Atteridgeville. “For the AV side of

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28 October 2024

USA - The historic Bearsville Theatre in Woodstock, NY, has installed a new Meyer Sound system provided by Masque Sound.

The Bearsville Centre, nestled in the heart of the Catskills, was built in the 1960s by music impresario Albert Grossman, manager of artists including Bob Dylan, The Band, and Janis Joplin. Conceiving the complex as a home for creative inspiration, Grossman built cabins, a record label, and a recording studio that hosted the likes of the Rolling Stones, REM, Muddy Waters, and The Pretenders.

Today, the complex comprises two restaurants; a café and bar; residences; Utopia Studios, designed in 1979 for Todd Rundgren; and the Bearsville Theatre, celebrated for its acoustics and historic charm.

The Bearsville Theatre entered a new chapter in 2024 under the direction of Dayglo Presents, led by concert promoter and multi-venue p

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28 October 2024

UK - University of the Arts London (UAL) and Sony have partnered on a specialist Virtual Production (VP) research stage, housed within the Fashion Textiles and Technology Institute (FTTI) at UAL’s new East Bank campus in London. This features a Crystal LED wall powered by Brompton Technology’s advanced LED processing.

The East Bank campus is set to become a hub for research, innovation, creativity, and learning, driving collaboration between world-leading universities, cultural institutions, industry experts, and local communities. The VP stage will play a key role in advancing transdisciplinary, practice-led research in Virtual Production (VP) and XR textiles and dress, offering a dynamic environment for experimentation and creative exploration.

The studio is equipped with a seamless horseshoe-shaped Sony Crystal LED display that has a total siz

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28 October 2024

Slovakia - Independent broadcast company, TV Markíza has recently installed a Leyard TVF video wall in the news studio and Leyard CarbonLight CLI and CLI Flex screens in The Morning Show studio. The fine pitch LED displays add functionality and flexibility to the 24-hour, multi-use studios, allowing TV Markíza to switch effortlessly between news, weather or morning chat show layouts.

Leyard’s association with the broadcaster dates back to 2017, when three Leyard TVH series video walls were installed for the news studio. Leyard was then chosen as the supplier for the studio’s 2019 expansion, but the project was delayed due to the pandemic, with the installation of the Good Morning studio completing at the end of 2020.

“A key factor was that Leyard’s European manufacturing facility and head office is in Slov

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28 October 2024

India - Powersoft’s Mezzo, Duecanali and Quattrocanali amplifiers, complemented by its new Verso gateway device and monitored via the MyUniverso cloud platform, are at the heart of a sound system delivering multi-zone audio for both background music and live sound at Bellandur Social in Bangalore.

Housed within an oval-shaped glass dome, Bellandur Social is a hub for entertainment where patrons can enjoy fine dining under a canopy of natural light during the day and a high-energy nightclub at night. The 54th Social establishment by Impresario Hospitality, headed by Riyaaz Amlani, Bellandur Social is inspired by nature and aims to create the feeling of a “garden city” within its walls.

Designed to accommodate 1,500 patrons across three floors, Bellandur Social needed high-quality, powerful audio across multiple zones, including a DJ area at fron

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25 October 2024

Ukraine - The Jam Factory is a new contemporary art centre and a collaborative community event space, set in a reimagined Neo-Gothic former distillery and one time jam factory in picturesque Lviv, the largest city in western Ukraine.

All technical elements – lighting, sound, video, trussing, cable infrastructure, automation and the control systems – for the main auditorium and performance area were supplied by Dnipro-based Sound House, one of Robe’s Ukrainian distributors, with Robe LEDWash 300s and ParFect 150s on the lighting rig.

Sound House won the tender and undertook the technical design, specification, installation, commissioning and delivery of all Jam Factory’s technical production components.

The Jam Factory project started in 2015 when the then derelict building was acquired by the organisation of cultural entrepreneur, Har

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25 October 2024

USA - Lighting designer Whitney Hoversten is shaping the visual spectacle of Bruno Mars’ shows using Elation Proteus series lighting. From his eight-year residency at Park MGM in Las Vegas to selling out stadiums worldwide, Hoversten has employed the IP-rated Proteus lighting to enhance and complement the global superstar’s performances.

This year began with seven sold-out shows at the Tokyo Dome in Japan, followed by performances in Mexico, Asia, the grand opening of LA’s new Intuit Dome, and regular dates at his Las Vegas residency. He played in Brazil this fall with a record-setting number of shows and will wrap up the year back in Vegas.

Hoversten has been along for the ride for nearly eight years and his position has evolved. Today, he wears many hats including production designer and describes this year’s journey as less of a tour and m

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25 October 2024

USA - Matthieu Larivee and the team at Luz Studio designed Jason Aldean’s 24-city Highway Desperado tour, which concluded on 5 October at Georgia’s Macon Amphitheatre.

Appreciating that the lower parts of the stage are where most eyeballs (and most cell phones) are focused, they strove to make this area as fan and camera friendly as possible by incorporating multi-level fascia risers into their design.

“The risers were the start of the design,” said Larivee. “I wanted to focus on the lower part of crowd POV. This is where people are mainly watching, and this is the main background of the pictures on social media. This is especially true on amphitheatre tours where it’s hard to manage haze. Therefore, the lower part of the stage is where we get more impact with the artist.”

To ensure that this area popped for the live au

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25 October 2024

Poland - Sound engineer Robert Czyżewicz, celebrated for his innovative approach to sound in cinema, has once again delivered with his work on the Polish film Znachor, known to English-speaking audiences as Forgotten Love. Utilising DPA microphones, Czyżewicz crafted a soundscape that brings viewers closer to the world on screen, enhancing the film’s atmosphere and emotional depth.

“Sound is a medium that makes the picture more realistic and brings it closer to the viewers,” says Czyżewicz. “It defines the film’s place, time and mood, allowing the audience to fully immerse themselves in the story.”

The engineer first discovered DPA microphones in 1995 and began using them shortly thereafter. Since then, Czyżewicz has expanded his collection. “I am consistently impressed by DPA’s natural sound and versatility,”

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25 October 2024

USA - Watson Wu specialises in recording car engines, weapons fire, aircraft, power tools, explosions, and other high-SPL sources. With credits ranging from feature films like Baby Driver to megahit video games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Assassin’s Creed, he has become an industry leader in this niche of sound design.

His work must be precise, not only because the extreme levels can damage microphones, but also due to the complexity of taking a sound that would be painful to experience in person and making it listenable in a media context – without diluting its dramatic impact. Wu relies on a single device for this task: the SPDR (Stereo Portable Digital Recorder) from Lectrosonics.

Asked to describe his job, Wu begins: “As Lectrosonics users go, I suppose I’m a little different because I’m not a mix

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25 October 2024

Mexico - Malak XR Production Studios commissioned Evoke Studios to collaborate with the prominent Mexican TV station TV Azteca. Together, their aim was to ‘gamify’ the station’s weekly two-minute updates on poll results during the broadcasts of the 2024 Mexican election.

Harnessing a global team of skilled project managers, illustrators, animators, texturisers, and programmers, Evoke Studios created four multi-level, yet challenging, gamified worlds. Here avatars of the presidential candidates competed with one another for poll position.

With multiple creatives working on the project, one of the challenges the Evoke Studios team faced was to ensure continuity of style across all the backgrounds and assets.

“This outcome relies on comprehensive prep work, research, and clear and concise communications,” explains creative technologist

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24 October 2024

Singapore - Prodigy.MX and .MP units were chosen by Showtec International to deliver the spectacular National Day Parade celebrations from the heart of Singapore’s downtown area.

Independence Day festivities are held in the Padang, Malay for ‘field’, outside the former City Hall, and the site has special historical significance, being the venue for the inauguration of Yusof Ishak and many National Day Parades.

Singapore celebrated its 59th anniversary this year with traditional displays from the military, flypasts and many extraordinary performances. The events were broadcast live, streamed online and displayed on large screens across Singapore. There were fireworks displays and a host of supporting events to mark the occasion.

To ensure the event was not only heard by the people present, but also all those watching remotely, the team f

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24 October 2024

USA - Award-winning Indian playback superstar Javid Ali sings songs in many languages, from Tamil and Urdu, to Bengali, in addition to Hindi.

On his recent shows in the New York area, Ali’s two-hour and thirty-minute concert featured a light show created by Roosevelt Dsouza with a rig anchored by 20 Colorado PXL Curve12 and 16 Color Strike M fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

Arranged on a straight line across the downstage deck, the Colorado motorised battens played a variety of roles in the design. At times, they were used to direct intense colourful beams upward in a diagonal line that effectively blocked the upstage area from view. The effect was to create a sense that Ali was closer to the audience, engendering a sense of intimacy between the singer and his fans.

At other times, the Colorado PXL Curve12 projected distinct columns of c

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24 October 2024

UK - Nexo’s compact and cost-effective Geo M Series delivers flexibility to hard-working rental companies required to cover a large range of events with little downtime between them.

One such company is Oxfordshire-based Event Production Services, which has seen a busy summer deploying its Geo M inventory on a variety of jobs all over its home UK county and beyond.

Four stages at the 25th anniversary Truck Festival at Hill Farm in Steventon were rigged this year by EPS, with Geo M12 and Nexo MSUB18s in service on stages 4 and 5, hosting everything from comedy to rock bands and each covering an audience of approximately 2,000 people.

“We got lots of compliments at Truck Festival from artists and audience alike, including people saying that these were the best-sounding stages on the site,” reports EPS managing director Robert Nisbet. “G

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24 October 2024

France - Known for its sandy beaches and warm climate, on the north-eastern Brittany coast, Dinard welcomed the fourth edition of Dinard Opening, a festival that celebrates English and Irish music. Held between 4-10 August, the festival featured artists such as Emilie Rose Bry, Izo Fitzroy, Rum Buffalo, Mick Flannery & Susan O'Neill and The Stranglers.

Dinard’s history with the UK dates back to the 19th century when the seaside commune was the favourite destination for British aristocrats. Now dubbed as the “most British of French towns”, Dinard was a fitting location for a festival dedicated to British music and culture.

Festival goers enjoyed music in various locations around the city, including a public park, Anglican Church, theatre, auditorium, as well as forecourt of the Port-Brenton manor. Behind the scenes, an APG sound system, desi

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24 October 2024

USA - Las Vegas-based independent lighting designer Gregg Maltby used an array of Ayrton fixtures and a pair of grandMA3 light consoles for Peter Frampton’s The Positively Thankful Tour, which led up to his induction ceremony at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in October. Ayrton and MA Lighting products are exclusively distributed in North America by ACT Entertainment.

OSA International in Nashville was the lighting vendor for the tour, a role they played for Frampton’s 2023 North American tour, which Maltby also designed.

“I had used Ayrton fixtures before and knew they’d be really bulletproof on the four legs of this tour,” says Maltby. “We were playing theatres, arenas and some outdoor sheds and had just two trusses up and downstage and fixtures on the floor, so we could use the rig everywhere we went. There wasn’t a lot of

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24 October 2024

USA - On their current Good Together Tour, the multi-genre band Lake Street Dive uses varied contrasts to make every show impactful and memorable. Audiences experience diverse colour palettes, striking staging and special effects elements, intriguing lyrical themes and an overall attitude that the quintet has described as “joyful rebellion”.

“One of the things the band kept saying during the lead-up to this tour, was that it’s a ‘joyful rebellion’,” lighting director Andrew Froehlich explained. “The album is also all about that feeling: there’s joy, but a little bit of sourness in there. Everything kind of sucks sometimes, but we’re here, we’re living, we’re breathing, so let’s make it better, together.”

From his spot at front of house, Froehlich makes deft and artful use of contrast to enhance the impact of every

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24 October 2024

USA - The city of Niagara Falls stands adjacent to its famous namesake and is home to 50,000 residents. The city is rich in history, culture, outdoor life, shopping, and adventure, featuring hundreds of attractions and things to do year-round. It’s also home to 5 Day Productions.

5 Day Productions is an AV integrator in western New York that focuses on providing clients with purpose-built, high-performance audiovisual solutions. Led by CEO Nathan Gambino, 5 Day Productions has been involved in several installations in and around Niagara Falls, including Niagara Community Church, Sēvā Kitchen and Bar, and Niagara Falls High School.

Gambino regularly recommends LEA Professional’s Connect Series amplifiers to meet various AV requirements, from high intelligibility to ease of use to built-in DSP. The Connect Series of two-, four-, and eight-channel

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23 October 2024

UK - Polar will stage a demonstration day for the Turbosound Manchester Series of loudspeakers at the Old Savoy Theatre, Northampton on Tuesday, 19 November.

The Turbosound Manchester Series is designed for large-scale sound reinforcement at concerts, festivals, and stadiums. It features advanced waveguide technology and custom transducers. Its modular design allows scalable configurations for indoor and outdoor venues, ensuring superior performance and reliability for touring professionals and large events.

The event will provide an opportunity for sound engineers, audio professionals, and industry peers to listen to the Manchester Series in action. Visitors will experience its sound performance, discuss specific technical features, and get hands-on experience and insight into how the Series can be deployed in a wide variety of professional audio en

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23 October 2024

UK - QuickLink has been instrumental in easing the remote production challenges of ITV Studios’ popular Saturday Night Takeaway television series.

Lifted Entertainment, part of ITV Studios, produces over 500 hours of television for UK audiences every year, ranging from Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway, The Voice, Countdown, and University Challenge.

Saturday Night Takeaway is a mixture of live and pre-recorded entertainment, with gameshow-influenced segments and regular surprise interactivity with viewers, including children facing health challenges and their families.

At the remote end, which could be literally anywhere in the country, laptops were initially used with either video capture cards or webcams. To take Saturday Night Takeaway remote segments to the next lev

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23 October 2024

The Netherlands - The historic Kunstmin Theatre, a cultural landmark in the heart of Dordrecht, has undergone a communication transformation with the installation of Clear-Com's Arcadia Central Station System. The recent upgrade replaces the theatre's outdated intercom system and seamlessly connects its two locations, Schouwburg and Energiehuis, through a unified communication platform.

Kunstmin’s head technician, Bart Meester, comments: “We had been using two different systems for years – an early Clear-Com digital system, FreeSpeak II digital wireless system, combined with an analogue ASL partyline system. While these systems served us well, it was time for a modern solution.”

After careful research and multiple demonstrations, Kunstmin chose Clear-Com’s Arcadia system for its ability to integrate both wired and wireless digital communica