Asia - To better serve its expanding market in the continent, Chauvet has appointed industry figure Desmond Kwan as its Asia business development specialist.
Kwan brings extensive experience in entertainment lighting to his new position, having served in various sales and management positions at Harman Professional for 15 years. During that time he acquired a reputation for his product knowledge and commitment to customer service.
“Desmond’s track record is extremely impressive,” said Stéphane Gressier, international sales director at Chauvet. “In addition to possessing an extraordinary level of expertise, he also has a genuine dedication to putting the customer first. This has earned him an excellent reputation throughout the markets he serves. It is also very much in keeping with our own philosophy at Chauvet, so he will fit in very nicely with our corporate culture and make valuable contributions to our continued growth in Asia.”
Kwan, who will be responsible for Chauvet Professional and Chauvet DJ products, shares this enthusiasm about his new position. “Becoming part of the Chauvet team is a wonderful opportunity,” he said. “Not only is this a company with tremendous growth potential in Asia, it’s also one that shares my values about being committed to excellence and customer service. I am very excited.”
(Jim Evans)

Singapore - Technical production company, J5 Productions of Singapore, has recently invested in 24 Ayrton Diablo-S 300W LED profile fixtures for its rental stock. The powerful little lighting fixtures were purchased earlier this year from Ayrton’s exclusive distributor for Singapore, Total Solution Marketing Pte Ltd., following a successful demonstration
Designed specifically for stage applications, Diablo-S is equipped with a monochromatic LED light source calibrated at 7000K that can generate up to 19,000 lumens. At just over 21kg Diablo is the smallest, lightest and most efficient luminaire of its category.
J5 Productions specialises in AVL event-related broadcast and media equipment rental across Asia. Its operators and technical engineers are dedicated to providing the highest technical consultancy services, utilising a variety of systems, for international events, conferences, product launches and concerts.
The team were particularly impressed with Diablo-S’s smooth dimming curve and beam quality, which lacked any ‘troubling hot spots’. They thought it extremely powerful for its size and approved the added benefit of saving on power consumption, which makes it suitable for most venues. Another popular feature was the ‘nice selection’ of seven interchangeable high-definition glass gobos.
Having seen Diablo-S in action, the team were very satisfied and concluded Diablo-S would be a great addition to their rental business. “I really like the size of the light which makes it easy to set at every event,” says head of lighting,

UK - Turbosound has introduced the Manchester Series line array system which aims to ‘bring the brand back to premier live sound reinforcement’.
The Manchester Series is ‘the culmination of listening intently to customer’s requirements, obsessing over their needs and chasing down the relentless quest for sonic accuracy, clarity and detail in providing the best sound reinforcement available’.
Manchester has been tested to withstand the extremes of any given application and can be deployed in virtually any environment. Turbosound is confident that no matter the environment or situation Manchester series will perform.
Chris Hinds, Turbosound brand leader at Music Tribe, comments, "This is Turbosound pushing back with an exceptionally strong product to cater to all aspects of professional audio installation and touring applications’
“I’m inherently proud to present The Manchester Series to the industry. It is testament to the vision, the ethos and the hard work of our design and development teams, whose role in interpreting what exactly it is that the customer needs, has been nothing short of exemplary. We want the series to become a mainstay on technical riders and installation projects throughout the world, for years to come.
“We knew that sound became critically advanced. So we knew we had to become better. What has been asked of this system is what has been manufactured.
To coincide with new product launches from sister companies Midas with the flagship Heritage D-96 console and Lab Gruppen with the new software i

UK – Event production services provider, Ingram AV is one of the first UK rental companies to stock Claypaky’s Mini-B LED beam light - supplied by distributor, A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET).
Based in the North East of England, Ingram AV offers equipment hire and full technical event production services for live, corporate and architectural events.
Ingram AV has recently made a significant investment in cutting-edge equipment for its rapidly expanding new lighting department, which joins an extensive audio-visual catalogue.
Following increasing requests from customers for a small, bright wash fixture, Ingram AV’s Reed Ingram Weir contacted AC-ET’s Northern sales office. Lighting sales manager, Ben Steppenbeck and Benjamin Taylor in the external sales team visited Reed to provide a demo of the Claypaky Mini B.
Reed commented: “I was really impressed by its speed and brightness, which are the best I have seen for a beam light of this size and weight. It’s a versatile solution for us as its size and output means we can use it for almost any size stage, studio, venue or event.”
He added: “Being from Claypaky as well, which is an established brand known for its high product quality and reliability, was another important factor in my decision.”
Reed invested in 16 Mini-B fixtures for use on a variety of upcoming concerts and various live events taking place in the coming months.
In addition to purchasing the Claypaky fixtures, Reed has recently purchased SIXTY82 truss and LSC Gen VI dimmer/switch ra

Portugal - For its 2019 international distribution meeting in Porto, NEXT-proaudio welcomed over 70 international distribution partners, dealers, customers and designers from 18 countries.
This event started with a welcome dinner on 14 October. This was followed by a factory tour, demo presentation on the demo room and LA26 official presentation.
Demos of LA212x, LA122.v2, LA122A and LAm114xA were staged at Multiusos de Guimaraes, a leading arena for international concerts on the north of Portugal.
On 16 October, everybody was welcomed on the NEXT-proaudio facilities again where Powersoft started the day with Armonia presentation based on N-rak (The power rack solution using Powersoft X8 amplifiers). After this, Antonio Correia, R&D director and NEXT-proaudio owner presented the manufacturer’s own software (Soundware, Audio Tool and AST).
“This was a great opportunity for us to show all the delegates our improvements on the facilities, on the products as well as on the team. We were more than happy to receive all these people from different parts of the world, all with the same ambition, to grow NEXT-proaudio worldwide,” said Andre Correia, NEXT-proaudio’s manager.
“It was exciting to see the passion, the enthusiasm of everybody on these two days. We´re proud of our team and the distribution network. We could see our recent LA26 being one of the highlights of the event, with orders of more than 200 units after the meeting. We couldn´t be more satisfied,” Said Sergio Pinto, NEXT-proaudio sales manager.
(J

World - Green Hippo reports that its Hippotizer Media Servers are driving the on-stage stage screen visuals for Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds (NGHFB), as their 2019 World Tour continues.
Production manager Michael O’Connor and lighting/video designer Rod Clay turned to event production supplier OneBigStar to service the tour’s media playback and control requirements. “We were delighted when Rod approached us to provide the control package for NGHFB,” says OneBigStar’s Steven Yeardsley.
“We’ve worked closely with Rod on a number of occasions over the past few years and he’s very familiar with the equipment we stock. OneBigStar have always looked to Green Hippo and their range of media servers as a first choice for our rental inventory. The quality of the product and the support we receive is second to none.”
The media servers on this tour, two Hippotizer Karst+ with Datapath capture cards, are controlled by Clay himself, with support from lighting and video technician Matt Compton, from an MA Lighting GrandMA full-size console, via CITP. Flexibility, both in the updating of content and the mapping of outputs to displays, was an essential requirement. “The ease of setup and connectivity between the lighting console and Hippotizer servers was crucial,” says Yeardsley.
The upstage LED screens display a variety of content, including custom-made material to match the themes of each song, and additional content added on a show-by-show basis. For one special performance – the leaving dinner for departing Manchester City

UK - As is now customary, Hyde Park played host to the final weekend of its long season recently, with Proms in the Park on the Saturday making way for BBC Radio 2 Live in Hyde Park the following day.
This also brought the curtain down on a successful summer at the Park for Capital Sound, and their MLA PA from Martin Audio, following its 10-day stint at British Summer Time two months earlier.
Designed to coincide with Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, headliner, Barry Manilow was, supported by Bonnie Tyler, the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde, Jack Savoretti, Gabrielle and soprano Aida Garifullina. Bigger ensembles included two choirs, while the cast of Les Miserables also shared the bill, and the 60-piece BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Richard Balcombe, performed the traditional Last Night of the Proms anthems - including Pomp and Circumstance and Land of Hope and Glory.
The following day, BBC Radio 2 presenters Zoe Ball, Ken Bruce, Rylan Clark Neal, Sara Cox, Gary Davies, Trevor Nelson and Jo Whiley introduced a galaxy of stars, including headliners Pet Shop Boys to the 50,000-capacity crowd.
Working the event for the sixth year, Capital Sound were again contracted by promoters, Festival Republic, with production in the hands of Dick Tee.
Capital has already evolved an optimised sound, with a main PA hang comprising 16 x MLA and an MLD Downfill per side, and 12 x MLA on each flank as side-fills. Sub frequencies were reproduced by 26 MLX subwoofers in a broadside cardioid array - 17 forward facing

The Netherlands - Dutch megastar Marco Borsato recently played a stream of sold out record breaking shows at De Kuip stadium. The set included a large scale canvas in the form of a 1,000sq.m LED screen.
To power the impressive visuals needed for this event, Michael Al-Far of MalfMedia and Jo Pauly of Visual Solutions turned to disguise servers. Six disguise vx 4 and four disguise gx 2 media servers played key roles in the production, driving the video content and facilitating real-time IMAG grading of the live feed and the integration of Notch VFX and multicam AR in the massive main screen graphics.
“As an artist and photographer Marco felt the time had come for him to be involved in every step of this exciting project, so we had creative freedom, but he had the final say. Together with set and lighting designer Carlo Zaenen we created the content book in which we outlined the look and feel of every song,” says MalfMedia founder Michael Al-Far.
“Marco Borsato was adamant that the live feed would be treated to fit better in the cinematographic content,” Michael notes. As a result, MalfMedia approached Lewis Kyle White to apply his vast experience in IMAG grading for live shows on this project.
The outdoor show posed a number of challenges: starting in daylight and transitioning to night; a canvas that was by some measures the largest screen ever used for an arena rock concert; the IMAG live feed embedded into the content and not shown on side screens; and a set list of 37 songs that all needed to have the same standard of quality.

Germany - The European summer music festival season wound up with a few notable events including Lollapalooza Berlin, which returned to the Olympiastadion site for the second year with a line-up including the Swedish House Mafia, UFO361, Kings of Leon, Rita Ora, Hozier, Twenty One Pilots, Billie Eilish and many more.
Robe moving lights were in evidence site-wide, supplied by a number of different companies including TSE AG (Main Stage North) and Black Box Music (Main Stage South) both from Germany and Colour Sound Experiment from the UK which delivered lighting and video for the dance-orientated Perry’s Stage.
For Main Stage North, a production design / top rig was created by Marco Hoch from TSE AG which allowed artists bringing in their own specials packages ‘underneath’ to be quickly and painlessly accommodated, and have a good, versatile all-round compliment of lights in the roof ready to be hooked into their consoles.
This year’s house rig included 90x Robe moving lights – a mix of BMFL Spots, BMFL WashBeams, Spiiders and MegaPointes. These were joined by strobes and blinders and lots of fog and haze, all controlled through two grandMA2 full sizes.
Ludwig Laudan, the Main Stage North house LD / operator who also provided technical assistance for guest LDs, commented, “BMFLs are currently simply the festival fixture of the moment. Their strong output and excellent colours make them ideal.”
They created the lighting plot offering BMFL Spots and Spiider LED wash beams familiar to all of the guest LDs, complemented by BMFL

UK - The start of the new academic year at Sherborne Girls School in Dorset has seen a welcome addition to the impressive school campus. The Merritt Centre – a new arts centre is now fully operational.
Students will be able to take full advantage of the facilities including the Gransden Hall - a new build recital hall which has been fitted out with 12 custom-designed Triple E VariRoller variable acoustic banners.
Triple E responded to architect Burrell Foley Fischer’s request to provide a full project service for the install which included the design, manufacture, construction, testing with bespoke laminated fabric and installation planning.
“The brief was to produce effective acoustic baffling to ensure the hall was tuned for a variety of performance types as required by Sherborne Girls’ extensive music programme throughout the year,” explains David Edelstein of Triple E. “We also had to ensure that the design and finish of the banner assemblies reflected the aesthetics of Burrell Foley Fischer’s design for the brand new recital hall. Our VariRoller system formed the basis of the design. To meet this requirement we manufactured bespoke veneered boxes to house the VariRollers, which were profiled to fit neatly into the angled roof space.”
Mark Foley, Burrell Foley Fischer adds, “Triple E provided a cost effective and good quality solution for us in the new Merrit Centre at Sherborne Girls School, where the live acoustic of this voluminous recital hall needed to be attenuated to levels that were acceptable for speech and rec

USA - The epic Utopia concert by Latin American music superstar Romeo Santos broke the all-time concert gross record for a performance at the MetLife Stadium on 21 September. At the heart of the show’s rich visual design, Yamil Charif and Richard Vicens of YC3 Lighting Design specified more than 100 lighting fixtures from Vari-Lite.
Lining the wide stage and multiple walkways were Vari-Lite’s VL6000 Beam fixtures. These were partnered for the first time by the new VL6500 Wash fixtures, making their world debut on Utopia, positioned around the sides of the stage.
“We were very strict about the walkway and stage fixtures being the VL6000s and VL6500s,” said Charif. “They were the only fixtures in our rig that were non-negotiable. There is literally nothing else on the market will give us that effect.”
High power was essential as almost every surface of the 260ft stage was covered with bright LED screens, and lower powered fixtures would have been lost against this background. “We chose the VL6000 Beam for the walkways because of its unique look and its intensity. We knew it was going to look great on camera and have the punch that we need in a stadium like the MetLife.”
He added, “Being the first to use the VL6500 Wash was very exciting. It’s similar in size and output to the VL6000 Beam, but looks like the old school VL5, with those blades. The two fixtures work very well together. It’s a super-cool look.”
(Jim Evans)

USA - Founded and organised by Eric Clapton, the Crossroads Guitar Festival is a two-day music event and trade show that benefits the Crossroads Centre substance-abuse rehabilitation facility in Antigua. The 2019 edition was held at American Airlines Centre in Dallas, with the indoor arena augmented by an all-day outdoor Village Stage featuring special guests and surprise performances in a master clinic format, sponsored by Ernie Ball.
The sound system for the Village Stage was an Electro-Voice X-Line Advance X2 line-array loudspeaker system, powered by the latest Dynacord DSP amplifiers. Notable performers included John Mayer, Eric Johnson, Joe Robinson, Andy Timmons and Paul Reed Smith. The system was supplied by Gulf Coast Sound (Rayne, LA), with owner Larry Habetz doing most of the mixing for crowds of up to 5,000. Electro-Voice applications engineer Mike Reynolds was on hand as system tech.
The main PA consisted of twin nine-box arrays of X2-212/120, supported by eight ground-stacked X12-128 dual 18” subwoofers. Two EVC-1082 loudspeakers were deployed as front fills. The system was powered by seven of the new TGX20 DSP amplifiers by Dynacord, which enabled 96 kHz Dante audio with full redundancy. System monitoring and control were handled via Dynacord’s new SONICUE sound system software. Two Dynacord IPX10:8 multi-channel DSP amps powered the stage wedges.
On stage, the microphone deployment was also Electro-Voice based, with ND76 and ND86 dynamic vocal mics, and the ND44 handling the critical guitar amp duties. Drum mics included the ND44

UAE - Creative Technology Middle East has appointed Lee Forde as the new general manager of its Dubai branch. Lee is an industry veteran with over 33 years’ experience and has a strong technical and managerial background. Lee will play a crucial role in overseeing the day to day operations while further assisting Andy Reardon implement strategies to enhance and expand CT Middle East.
Andy Comments “It is an exciting time for the Middle East as we continue to grow and expand our team of professionals. I am looking forward to working closely with Lee and wish him all the best going forward.”
Rob Turner has joined as the integrated networks technical manager. Rob has joined CTME to develop the newly established communications and networking division, with over 24 years experience in the AV industry, 10 of which he spent at Delta Sound.
(Jim Evans)

Slovakia - One of Europe’s premier air shows is the annual Slovak International Air Fest (SIAF) and, this year, the Slovak Aviation Agency added a new air festival to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of celebrated Slovakian politician, diplomat and aviator General Milan Rastislav Štefánik. Yamaha audio systems were an essential part of both events.
The Slovak Aviation Agency stages SIAF at Sliač airport every August. The crowds enjoyed flying displays by aircraft from Slovakia and 12 other NATO and EU member states.
Before this, in May the new Aviation Fest Piešťany (FLP) was held at Piešťany airport, located between Sliač and the Slovakian capital Bratislava. Systems integrator MediaTech was asked to supply the public address systems to both events, trusting Yamaha systems for these safety critical applications.
“At both events, the main zone was the spectator area along the flight line, which measured approximately 800 x 300m, plus a VIP area covering 300m x 100m.” says MediaTech’s Mario Brosch.
“We had to consider that there may be up to 100,000 spectators in the main area and all of them had to hear and understand announcements, even when aircraft were passing and in bad weather like wind and rain. The speakers could also only be positioned along the boundary of the spectator area.”
Mario and the Bratislava-based MediaTech team chose a system comprising 40 pole-mounted DZR15 powered loudspeakers, whose best-in-class SPL performance, sophisticated DSP processing and low-frequency sound reproduction we

The Netherlands - The Festival de Nederlandse Dansdagen (Dutch Dance Festival) is recognised internationally as a leading event for dance in the Netherlands and 20 ETC Source Four LED Series 2 luminaires were used to light the performances during the festival this October.
The six-day event invites dance companies from all over the country with styles varying from ballet to urban, avant-garde to modern dance and performance art. It welcomes a national and international audience and also presents its own productions including Bloedbanden, dansMuseum and Club Tweak.
Theater aan het Vriithof, based in the south east city of Maastricht, hosts performances such as the National Ballet as well as a youth dance day that caters for all ages and audiences throughout the festival.
The venue traditionally used 10 booms with conventional tungsten profiles as side lights but the technical team at the Dutch Dance Festival found the frequent changes of colours particularly challenging for so many shows. For the 2019 edition of the festival, they wanted to replace these profiles with ETC LED fixtures.
“Our wish for the 2019 edition of the festival was to replace the traditional profiles with LED fixtures. It would save time and give all the Dutch dance companies the opportunity to work with the newest technology which we were able to achieve with ETC,” says Marijcke Voorsluijs, technical director of the Festival de Nederlandse Dansdagen.
When testing each side light boom using two ETC Source Four LED Series 2 profiles and one traditional par can, the

Tunisia - The Fairground Festival is based in Sousse, on the east coast of Tunisia. This past summer the festival hit a whole new level in just its fourth year, where more than 7,000 attendees made their way to the festival, from all over Tunisia and other countries.
This year’s Fairground theme was Amazing Culture and highlighted popular acts such as Giorgia Angiuli, Jan Blomqvist, ARTBAT & Tantsui, as well as 36 other electronic music artists including 23 artists from Tunisia. The Clair Brothers gear was provided by Pro Audio & Light (PAL), Clair Brothers’ exclusive distributor in the region.
On the main stage, 32 C8 line arrays provided the overall sound, which according to Yasmine Bejaoui, stage manager at PAL, “is one of our best systems, if not the best. Since we obtained this PA, it’s the one we highlight the most.”
Along with C8s, four Clair Brothers CS118 subs, plus a host of custom subs, were called on to handle the massive low-end popular among EDM artists. On-stage sound was provided by four Clair Brothers 1.5AM monitors in tandem with the SD12 DiGiCo desk.
The entire configuration was powered by the Powersoft Audio X-Series, X4 & X4L amplifiers and a Waves MaxxBass bass enhancer processor. Bejaoui elaborates: “The festival was spread over two days, in a huge arena called Eco Village. This large area represented a much anticipated opportunity for PAL to install our entire inventory of C8 boxes.”
Anis Ben Ammar, the promoter of Fairground Festival, adds, “My team and I have always trusted PAL

Belgium - Group-PDA, which provides sound, video and lighting rentals for the events industry, has become the first company in Belgium to acquire Claypaky Mini-B LED beam fixtures. Group-PDA purchased the Mini-Bs from AED Distribution.
The Mini-B is the smallest LED beam light ever made by Claypaky for the professional market. It weighs in at just 7Kg and measures only 34cm but the Mini-B features the most advanced, modern optical and electronic technology.
Group-PDA quickly put its new Mini-Bs to work on an elegant 90th anniversary party for H.Essers, a logistics service provider headquartered in Genk, Belgium. Group-PDA provided eight Mini-Bs, 18 Claypaky Sharpys and eight Claypaky Alpha Spot HPE 300s for the stage in an old factory venue, which was outfitted for a gala sit-down dinner and evening of entertainment and dancing.
Positioned above the stage to light the dynamic musical performances, the Claypaky fixtures “gave us the light output and brilliant colours we could not get with other instruments,” says Peter Smeets, CEO of Group-PDA.
(Jim Evans)

UK - Blackpool Illuminations was first held in 1879. Stretching for six miles along the resort town’s Promenade, Blackpool Illuminations bathes the esplanade in light from over a million bulbs while interactive installations explore the concept of light as art.
4Wall Entertainment contributed to this year's event by transforming the city’s Theatre D'Amour into an experimental art installation that incorporated effects from Elation Artiste Monet LED moving head luminaires. Called the 4Wall Theatre of Light, the installation features a 12-minute light show that runs four or five times an hour and continues throughout the festival’s 30 August to 3 November run.
Blackpool Illuminations manager Richard Williams and 4Wall UK’s Simon Stuart developed the concept with Theatre D'Amour designer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen to bring modern technology into the theatre, a vision that involved the use of state-of-the-art lighting. “We wanted a high brightness LED fixture that would cut through the ambient level of light generated by Blackpool illuminations on the seafront,” stated Stuart, who has attended The Illuminations dozens of times. “Many units were evaluated and we found the Elation Artiste Monet to be the perfect fixture with an incredible amount of features that enhance the production.”
A recent PLASA innovation award winner, four floor-positioned Artiste Monet fixtures are used in the installation, working as part of a wider lighting and video package that includes LED beam lights, strobe/flood lights and moving LED video panels. “The bea

Indonesia - The integration of immersive display solutions into the world of enterprise conferencing and collaborative working was a key theme for Calibre at AV Week Jakarta. The event ran from 9-11 October at Kasablanka Hall, Jakarta.
Calibre teamed up with its new local partner V2 Indonesia based in Jakarta to showcase a host of innovations.
A smart meeting room collaboration solution utilised the Calibre 130-inch all-in-one LED Wall integrated with the Calibre 4K QuadVision scaler-switcher and multiviewer for management of 4K @ 60 4:4:4 video and HDMI bandwidth of 600MHz using sources from webcam, a notebook computer, media player, an interactive flat panel display and powerful collaboration software.
The result was an immersive, intuitive, and cutting-edge user experience. Visitors could try and test out the robust capabilities of each product.
Calibre also demonstrated the HQPro1000 scaler/switcher and SmartBrick LED solutions.
“We use Calibre with our top customers,” said Rudi Hidayat, CEO at V2 Indonesia. “We’re so excited about representing Calibre in Indonesia and AV Week Jakarta was a great opportunity to meet current and future customers.”
Willy Tsai, managing director at Calibre added, “AV Week delivered a strong mix of local and international integrators and end-users, and we believe our solutions, designed in partnership with V2 Indonesia, inspires and shows how collaborative working is moving into everyday enterprise communication.”
(Jim Evans)