USA - Volt Lites, Inc. of Burbank, California has taken delivery of a complement of Ayrton Ghibli and Mistral TC fixtures, expanding its lighting roster with its first-ever Ayrton purchases.
Helmed by co-founders Harrison Lippman and Matthew Shimamoto, Volt Lites is a lighting production shop for the greater LA rental community and a wider national clientele.
“Both the Ghibli and Mistral-TC are exquisite LED profiles that hit all the marks and complement each other,” says Lippman. “The Ayrton line has really impressed us, and we’re excited to get the new fixtures into our clients’ hands: Volt Lites is one of the first companies to offer Mistral-TC in the US. The fact that ACT Lighting added Ayrton to their line card means we’ve been able to add Ayrton fixtures to our inventory.”
Both fixtures have already been in demand by Volt Lite customers. “The Ghiblis are very popular for film, commercials and live television while the Mistral-TCs are starting to go out on all types of live events and corporate projects,” Lippman reports.
(Jim Evans)

Australia - This November, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, in partnership with CineConcerts and Warner Bros. Consumer Products, performed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in Concert at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, South Australia. It was the first ever use of L-Acoustics L-ISA Hyperreal Sound in the southern hemisphere and took audiences even deeper into the magical world while the symphony orchestra performed the entire score live to picture.
L-ISA was deployed by leading Australian technical production company Novatech, which has been using L-Acoustic systems for events of all sizes and scope around Australia, from music festivals to live concerts and corporate events, for over a decade. A keen innovator and early adopter of creative event technology, the company has always endeavoured to improve the experience for guests and artists alike and has invested heavily into new technology over the years.
When L-ISA was released, Novatech looked for opportunities to use the ground-breaking technology in Australia. The search quickly focused onto one of its long-time partners, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, which has gained a reputation for outstanding contribution to the world of music and, with the nature of the entertainment perfectly matching the application of L-ISA, was a natural fit.
“With L-Acoustics being the backbone of our audio inventory, we were excited by the introduction of L-ISA and were keen to bring it to Australia for a live performance,” remarks Novatech’s production manager, James Sacca. “It seemed f

Europe - Absen has appointed Alex Couzins to the newly created position of head of brand and marketing for Europe in a move that sees the company underline its commitment to the region.
Alex, who joins from systems integrator AVMI, will be part of Absen’s corporate marketing team where he will be responsible for European brand marketing and providing local marketing support for the group’s VAPs (Value-Added Partners), referring to Absen’s ecosystem of highly trusted and experienced distributors and systems integrators.
The role will involve collaborating with peers across the business, including China and the US, to develop and implement the company’s marketing plans and brand strategy at a European level.
On his appointment, Alex commented: “I’m excited to be joining Absen at this exciting time. The company has a fantastic reputation for high-quality, reliable products and has been the top Chinese export brand for LED displays for 10 consecutive years; a testament to the company’s vision, performance and endurance in such a competitive global marketplace. I look forward to being part of this international team and working with our valued customers and partners to drive business growth.”
(Jim Evans)

UK - Sheaf St is the public area of Duke Studios, a hub of creative work spaces in Leeds and comprises a cafe, bar, event space and outdoor terrace. These spaces create a 400-capacity warehouse venue that can accommodate everything from live music and comedy to conferencing and dance music events.
When the Leeds Tech Hub Fund awarded Duke Studios a grant, it’s director James Abbott-Donnelly, took the decision to allocate significant funds toward dramatically upgrading the sound, light and projection facilities in Sheaf St to support a truly flexible and adaptable approach to staging every kind of event possible. Having done his research and spoken to a number of market leading brands, he concluded that Pioneer Pro Audio best understood the needs of the project and also that its range of speakers perfectly fitted the brief.
The Audio Group was engaged to install systems into Sheaf St’s three distinct areas, with the proviso that they could function independently or be used in tandem across the spaces to suit any given event. Following installs in the main Events Space and the Cafe-bar, the work was completed earlier this year when the outdoor ‘Yarden’ was equipped with its powerful yet discreet system. With all of its spaces fully covered by Pioneer Pro Audio’s XY and XPRS Series speakers, Sheaf St found itself fielding a sharply increased demand for its facilities.
The flexibility of the XY and XPRS systems ensure crystal clear speech reproduction and easily deliver the headroom for comedy and talks.
Paul Adamson, managing directo

Australia - Completed in 1862, Queensland’s stately Old Government House provided a dramatic backdrop for Mercedes Benz Fashion Week.
Tying the stunning 19th and 21st century visuals together into a balanced panorama was a colourful lighting design by Tim Allder of Chameleon Systems that featured 110 Chauvet Professional COLORdash Par H12IP fixtures, supplied by Showtools International.
To light the runways that ran on three sides of the iconic building, Allder had his COLORdash fixtures positioned on top of ground support vertical towers. Each tower had a 4-meter pipe on top that held five of the RGBAW+UV LED wash lights.
“We relied on the COLORdash fixtures to set the mood on the walk-in, as well as to light the building’s columns,” said Allder. “The building provided an excellent backdrop for the catwalk with lots of depth for us to play with, and the colours from the COLORdash really helped us accentuate these architectural features.”
The colour rendering capabilities of the COLORdash fixtures were also essential to highlighting the models and their outfits. “We used the fixtures to create hot, cold and medium skin tones that enhanced what the models were wearing during each segment,” said Allder. “For the brighter designs we had warmer colours and then pale blue-lavenders for the cooler apparel.
“Our biggest challenge in a project like this is to keep the levels and colour tones even along the entire catwalk, even with the limited number of locations we had to work from,” said Allder. “Happily, we were abl

Sweden - The country’s most northerly professional ice hockey team, Luleå HF, is enjoying new excitement at its home games, following the implementation of an impressive €4m audio-visual experience at the Coop Norrbotten Arena. A key part of this state-of-the-art package, installed by the Bright Group Sweden AB, is a high SPL Nexo Geo line array system.
The 6,300-capacity sports and event arena is home to the Luleå Hockey Association, which was keen to improve the live experience for its supporters and visitors, especially in the light of a new TV deal to broadcast all the games in Sweden’s premier ice hockey league.
Following its recent success at the Hartwall Arena in Finland, the Bright Group was ideally placed to design a dramatic new AV installation, including a powerful Nexo line array sound system, new arena lighting, projectors for ice projection, BlackTrax for position projection, LED-screens around the stand and a new LED-oval high above the ice. The high-end systems deliver a dazzling pre-show multimedia performance before every game in the arena. The show is constantly updated with new content, created by Bright Finland, putting the technology at the heart of the sporting entertainment.
“It has been a huge success,” says Bright Group Sweden’s director of installation John Wettersten. “The sound was one of the most appreciated parts of the project.
“When specifying our design, we had to consider the line of sight from the upper seats, as well as the weight of the loudspeaker cabinets necessary for the task, and, ne

USA - With two hospital locations, 12 primary care clinics, six rehabilitation centres and nine specialty care sites, Children's Minnesota is one of the largest paediatric health systems in the United States. Star Studio is the hospital's in-house television studio with production spaces located on both the Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses. Star Studio programming is shown on Children’s own 24-hour television channel. In addition to pre-recorded programmes, Star Studio also produces 12 live and interactive shows a week.
To increase production efficiencies and to provide better audio quality for the studio's interactive game show programmes and recorded content, Ben Diger, Star Studio broadcast engineer at Children’s Minnesota, began using Dante-enabled equipment and the Dante Via software for the multi-channel routing of computer-based audio.
"With live and pre-recorded content, audio is 80 percent of the experience, and if we have bad audio, no one's going to watch," said Diger. "Producing a show with high-quality, professional audio is a must for us. Dante allows us to do this."
The Dante audio network platform allowed Diger and his team to pull in separate game show audio and music channels, as well as microphone and headphone channels, from a single computer, creating a virtual studio. The team also uses Dante to tie together its intercom system over the network, instead of traditional XLR cabling.
With Dante Domain Manager, Star Studio’s audio is efficiently integrated into a single, manageable and secure audio over IP network tha

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) has supplied a new stage lighting rig for the indigo at The O2, a live entertainment sister-venue to The O2 Arena which regularly hosts exclusive after-show performances by superstar artists, including Ed Sheeran, Coldplay and Prince.
The 2,800 capacity venue has established itself as one of the Capital's most popular settings for big events on a smaller scale, hosting live music gigs; after-show parties; sports and club nights; stand-up shows including Jimmy Carr; and TV events such as the British Comedy Awards and the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards.
With such an impressive roster of artists using its production facilities, when the stage lighting rig was in need of an upgrade after 12 years of service, indigo at The O2's technical manager, Rob Burrows needed a system which was nothing less than cutting-edge to satisfy clients' discerning requirements.
He commented: "In the years since the original lighting rig was installed, LED-based fixtures have well and truly caught up in terms of their overall performance. Combined with the increasing cost of maintaining the old fixtures, it was the right time to make the jump to a new full LED rig."
After using AC-ET for several years, Rob approached the company again to provide the complete supply of all components for the new stage lighting rig. Bob Allen in AC-ET's UK Lighting sales team handled the project, which included assisting with the specification of over 40 products and supplying over 550 separate pieces of equipment.
Rob continued: "Beyo

USA - Orlando-based Professional Wireless Systems (PWS) has introduced new Ecoflex10 low-loss coaxial cable assemblies designed for today’s demanding wireless audio applications. Ecoflex 10 is a low-loss coaxial cable that features a flexible design and durable jack suitable for touring use.
“Ecoflex 10 is terminated with BNC connectors and sold in standard lengths of 25, 50, 75, 100 and 150 feet,” explains Justin Van Winkle, PWS production manager. “The connectors are reinforced with heavy duty adhesive-lined shrink tube which makes the cable even more durable for live wireless applications.
“The 10.2 mm thick cable offers a stranded, oxygen-free copper centre conductor which makes it very easy and flexible to install,” continues Van Winkle. “SSB’s proprietary techniques, continuous centre conductor calibration and compression as well as the application of pre-coating results in low losses and good impedance matching.”
Further advantages of the cable include the use of double shielding which is constructed of overlapping copper foil plus an additional tight woven copper braid. The copper foil has an applied PE-coating which prevents foil cracking due to short radius bends. The black PVC sheath of Ecoflex 10 is UV-stabilized.
(Jim Evans)

Canada - Solotech has announced the appointment of Nicolino Iannotti as vice-president, finance, effective 7 January, 2019.
Iannotti holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from Concordia University, and the CPA, CMA and CA professional designations. He has 20 years of experience in accounting, external reporting, audit, and financial planning & analysis in large-scale companies such as Gildan and Deloitte.
“As a leader in financial management in the United States and Canada, Mr. Iannotti will be a great asset to support Solotech’s growth on a global scale”, said Nicolas Lavoie, chief financial officer.
(Jim Evans)

China - d&b audiotechnik has made a further commitment to its Asia Pacific customers by establishing a new subsidiary in China. d&b audiotechnik and its previous partner in China, d&b China, are realigning their successful partnership by establishing a new cooperation named d&b audiotechnik Greater China Ltd., based in Hong Kong.
The foundation of a subsidiary of d&b audiotechnik Greater China Ltd. with offices in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai is also under way. Forty-four co-workers from the previous partner, based in Hong Kong, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, will join the new cooperation.
d&b audiotechnik is headquartered in Backnang, Germany where it carries out its research, development and production. d&b audiotechnik Greater China Group will be responsible for sales, marketing, service and support for sales partners and customers in Greater China.
The leadership of the new d&b subsidiary will be in familiar hands. Daniel Chan, who has a long association with d&b and the Chinese market, will become managing director (CEO) of d&b audiotechnik Greater China Ltd. Freddie To, also from the previous partner, will join the advisory board alongside an external market expert, who will be announced shortly, and Amnon Harman, CEO of the d&b audiotechnik Group. d&b audiotechnik holds the majority interest in the new cooperation. Chan and To will be co-owners.
“The Chinese market is strong and I believe this move from d&b comes at just the right time to leverage this positive growth”, says

USA - The Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Alaska, Anchorage (UAA) has taken delivery of Ayrton Ghibli fixtures, supplied by ACT Lighting, Inc., Ayrton’s exclusive distributor in North America.
Professor Daniel J. Anteau, the Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance whose specialty is lighting design, had been looking to introduce cutting-edge LED moving head fixtures to use in UAA’s Main Stage and Harper Studio Theatre. He saw Ghibli online, enquired about the new light’s capabilities and sought out Ghibli users.
“I wanted to know if it was as amazing as it appeared online,” says Anteau. “It seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. Users told me how Ghibli compared to other fixtures I knew. That gave me a lot of confidence moving forward.”
Anteau intends to share the Ghibli fixtures between UAA’s two stages. Although students have just returned for the new school year the Ghibli units have already been used by Alaska’s newest professional theatre company, CAZART, on a production of Lungs by Duncan Macmillan, with lighting design by UAA student James Kendall.
“The department’s new season will run from October 2018 to May 2019, and I anticipate the Ghiblis will be utilized on every production we do,” says Anteau. ‘I expect heavy usage for Playhouse Creatures which opens October 26.”
(Jim Evans)

UK - Tim Fawkes has worked for Prodigy since 2012 and been their lighting designer for the last year. He’s currently fully embroiled in creating a lighting riot for the current No Tourists, tour promoting the Prodigy’s seventh album.
HSL is again the lighting supplier, and the band are playing arenas and living up to their reputation for being among the most exciting live acts around.
Tim went for a massive, wide and “epic” look for the stage. “I wanted to get away from the postage stamp look of some shows in arenas, where only a tiny part of the actual venue is involved,” he explained. In addition to feeling the energy and atmospherics of the lighting, the band wanted to embrace the whole audience and pull them kicking and screaming into the Prodigy live trip and lighting plays an absolutely instrumental part in this process.
Tim was also involved in drawing up and developing the set design which is based on an idea from the band inspired by the album artwork involving the iconic Routemaster London bus.
In the middle of the stage are two AEC Routemaster front-engined double-decker buses which are 6m high, 2.5 wide and 3m deep.
Built by Brilliant Stages Tim worked alongside Prodigy production manager Tyrone Brunton and Brilliant account handler Bullet to perfect the scenic elements.
As this is a Prodigy show, these are no ordinary London buses – Tim calculated how many lights he could squeeze into the space and filled them with Martin MAC Quantum Washes, Atomic LED strobes and ColorBlock II LED battens to illum

Germany - Dynacord’s award-winning IPX amplifiers for fixed installations have made their world debut in one of Europe’s most significant stadium projects – the rejuvenation of the historic Berlin Olympiastadion.
Long known as one of the best-sounding stadiums in Germany, the historic location was outfitted in 2004 with an Electro-Voice system in time for the 2006 World Cup final. After 12 years of faithful service, that system has been upgraded to benefit from the power, energy-saving and networking flexibility of the Dynacord IPX range of amplifiers.
In addition, the stadium’s existing 171 Electro-Voice XLC loudspeakers have been upgraded to the DVX version for more powerful sound and increased intelligibility.
With an overall ambition of reducing the total cost of system ownership, the new solution had to feature IP connectivity, Dante audio and green credentials as well as deliver the best possible sound with headroom to spare. “If you can’t clearly understand what is coming from the loudspeakers, not only is it a safety risk, it’s not particularly satisfying for fans in the venue,” argues, Christoph Meyer, director of events & communications at Olympiastadion.
Fulfilling these requirements are 64 Dynacord IPX10:4 Class-D, multi-channel amplifiers with up to 10,000 watts per amp, providing ample headroom while handling all DSP processing. Two Electro-Voice N8000 NetMax controllers handle audio distribution and interface with the emergency evacuation system.
“Dynacord IPX series DSP amplifiers were the ideal cho

USA - The Classical Academy (TCA) in Colorado Springs recently debuted its new performing arts auditorium with a production of The Little Mermaid enhanced by an all LED Elation Professional lighting system designed and installed by Second Opinion Audio.
Second Opinion Audio designed all of the audio, lighting, video and motor control systems for the new performing arts space. “This is a total state-of-the-art system and we needed to have the lighting system reflect that,” said Second Opinion Audio founder Bob Langlois. “LED was the direction we wanted to go for maximum flexibility for the client. There is no other auditorium of this size that can claim this technology.”
The Elation lighting rig is made up of both dedicated white light luminaires (24 WW Profile warm-white ellipsoidal spots, 12 DTW Par 300 variable white LED Par lights) and full colour LED lights (22 Colour 5 Profile LED ellipsoidal spots, 10 SixBar 1000 LED battens). A pair of Antari F4 Fazers is used for atmospheric effects and mid-air canopy projection. The full theatrical lighting system is spread across three electrics and was designed by Second Audio’s Terry Taylor, who decided specifically on the Elation fixtures to fit the school’s needs.
Designed and built from the ground up, the new performing arts space was completed in time for the school’s fall presentation of The Little Mermaid.
“TCA is thrilled to have a new auditorium with state-of-the-art lighting and sound,” comments Kaye VonKessel, TCA’s theatre director. “We just finished

UK - With Oscar-winning film credits such as Gravity and Slumdog Millionaire in its portfolio, Pinewood-based Sound 24 is one of the leading post production sound facilities specialising in film and TV.
While Glenn Freemantle picked up a 2014 Oscar for best sound editing on Gravity, his Sound 24 partner Niv Adiri shared the award for best achievement in sound mixing on the same movie, while both have many BAFTA award credits to their name.
Both are discerning when it comes to sound production, and in upgrading their studio at Pinewood to an immersive Dolby Atmos mix room they have chosen Harman’s JBL 7 Series reference monitors for all monitoring; front, surround and overhead. The system incorporates JBL’s new Intonato 24 monitor controller for Atmos. All were supplied by reseller Jigsaw 24.
As Adiri explained, “We have used the room for many years with a different sound system and while it translated well, it was always lacking clarity in the dialogue and spot effects - you didn't quite know what you were going to get.”
Aware that many stages and theatres are equipped with JBL Cinema systems, they were recommended to speak to UK and Ireland distributors Sound Technology Ltd by Jigsaw 24. “And they have been brilliant,” says Adiri, “really helpful and really knowledgeable about what system the room was going to need.”
Ben Todd, application engineering manager at Sound Technology Ltd, provided a system design and demonstrated the recently introduced JBL 7 Series. Having tried the JBL solution out, the

USA Chauvet Professional makes it possible to cover a wider area with an even coloured wash on indoor and outdoor stages. Introduced just in time for festival season, the company’s new IP65 rated COLORado Panel Q40 features a magnetic flood filter that produces a very wide, but still even wash.
Powered by 40 15-watt RGBW LEDs, the rectangular wash fixture has a bright output (up to 9,480 lux at 5m) and creates perfectly smooth edge-to edge colour mixing. An adjustable beam angle of 15° or 24° adds to its versatility.
“We developed the COLORado Panel Q40 in response to the demand on the part of designers for a reliable IP65 rated wash with a wide coverage area that could be used at festivals, amphitheaters and similar outdoor venues without sacrificing colour quality,” said Albert Chauvet, CEO of Chauvet. “The bright output of the COLORado Panel Q40 also makes it well-suited for outdoor applications.”
Ruggedly constructed, the COLORado Panel Q40 measures 20.27 x 7.71 x 11.96 inches (515 x 196 x 304 mm) and weighs 28.2 lbs. (12.8 kg), making it efficient to setup and transport. Its outdoor rated power and data connectors can be connecting quickly and easily without the need for propriety cabling.
The user-friendly wash fixture can be controlled via DMX, WDMX and RDM. It has a colour temperature range of 2800 to 10000K and selectable Pulse Width Modulation that avoids flickering when lighting concerts and festivals that will be videoed.
“We’re excited about this light,” said Chauvet. “The popularity of festivals has cre

USA - ESTA has announced that A. Scott Hoyt will receive the 2018 Swan Award. This award is only given when an individual has served the association above and beyond the call of duty.
Scott’s service on the ESTA board of directors began in 2007. In 2012 Scott was elected to the office of treasurer and served as the treasurer of the PLASA Governing Body as well. As treasurer, he was a member of the executive committee as well as an ex-officio member of the Technical Standards and ETCP councils. His second and final term as ESTA’s treasurer comes to an end 31 December, 2018.
Though he has completed his service as Treasurer, Scott continues to chair the oversight committee of the business peer group and serves on the member advisory group.
(Jim Evans)

USA - When fast-growing Action Church in Florida decided to transform an older building into the ministry’s new broadcast location, they chose to dynamically light the space using an Elation Professional intelligent lighting system designed by AVL integration company Crown Design Group (CDG).
Action Church opened the new chapter, its fourth, in Winter Park, Florida, this past fall. As a dedicated broadcast location, the main sermon takes place at the new facility and is then fed live to Action Church’s other locations, one smaller location and two mobile sites that are set up and torn down each weekend that CDG has also outfitted with Elation gear.
“Every Action Church location has live music and a pastor host but this is their first large, non-mobile location,” says CDG co-founder Ben Graham, whose passion is to see churches inspire and grow their congregations through the use of AVL technology. “They required a versatile system that could cover both house and stage lighting and because all locations take a live feed from the Winter Park site, they needed lighting that could easily transition for use in the sermon broadcast.”
Needing a versatile colour-changing house lighting solution for the 1000-seat main room, CDG found it in Elation’s LED downlighting Colour Pendant. “They wanted control of the house lighting to project any colour and to match with the background they have on screens so we use the Colour Pendants to shade the room and bring colour from the stage out into the audience,” says Graham.
For colour wash on s

UK - Accompanied by an Allen & Heath dLive mixing system, English rockers Nothing But Thieves finally return to the UK, bringing their mammoth year-long world tour to an end.
SSE Audio - one of the largest rental stockists of Allen & Heath products in the UK - supplied the full audio set-up, which includes a dLive S7000 and DM64 MixRack fitted with Dante for multitrack recording and virtual soundcheck on FOH and a dLive S5000 with a DM64 MixRack on monitors.
Gary Curtis, FOH engineer and long-time user of Allen & Heath products, comments: “I first came across dLive at SXSW several years ago and I instantly found it very user-friendly, great sounding and very quick to assign layers, but the flexibility of the system is what really drew me in. Now I’ll use dLive at every opportunity I have - for this tour, I even convinced our monitor engineer (David) to move away from the ‘Dark Side’ and join the dLive team.”
“I was really apprehensive of using dLive at first but as soon as I had spent a few hours familiarising myself with the console, I just fell in love,” explains monitor engineer David Ruffle. “It was so fast, easy and perfect for what I needed to do with the in-ears - in terms of stage times - and it really does do everything I could want or need.”
Both engineers also use a range of the dLive’s built-in effects and DEEP processing suite, including the 16T, the Mighty compressor, the PeakLimiter76 and Dyn8. Ruffle comments, “In terms of processing and onboard effects, we use all of it! I’m using at least o

USA - Sitting on a sprawling campus in the Bothell community outside of Seattle, Cedar Park Church was founded in 1970 and has, for the last nearly 50 years, been growing each year.
When the time came to upgrade the church’s sound system in its 970-seat main auditorium, the decision to install a new system from Clair Brothers.
Steve Palermo, owner, LIFT AV, consultant and project manager of the new system, explains: “No architectural changes had to be made, however, we did spec the system for the church’s planned future renovations. This Clair Brothers kiTCurve12 system was designed to accommodate future renovations without requiring any further system enhancements or funding.”
Cedar Park Church’s old system was antiquated and due for a modern approach. The first step of the physical installation was the removal of all eighteen of the old speakers, ten amplifiers and a long-passed-its-prime system processor.
Palermo adds, “The idea was to significantly reduce the amplifier footprint and amperage requirements while making a huge improvement in fidelity, output and headroom. And with the new four per side kiTCurve12 system, a significant improvement was made to the stage site lines thanks to the incredibly elegant form factor of the system.”
Palermo and his LIFT AV team worked closely with Andy Soemo, sound and recording pastor at Cedar Park Church, to determine the best speaker system choice.
Now that the install is complete, and he’s had some time to experience it first hand, Andy reports: "I’m really happy abou