USA - The ETC board of directors has appointed Dick Titus as president/CEO, reports the company.
Titus has led the management team at ETC for 17 years as president and five years before that as COO. He joined the company in 1990.
ETC says in a statement: “The company is dedicated to maintaining the legacy of its co-founder Fred Foster who passed away earlier this year. As ETC continues to grow and develop, Fred’s people-focused and high-quality leadership perseveres. The company remains privately held with an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) that helps to secure the business as an independent company for the future.”
Titus comments: “It’s an honour to lead the executive staff. Together, we have a vast amount of experience serving the people of ETC and our customers. We have a unique culture and I am committed to building that for years to come. We have always been a company built on a model of personal responsibility. Our path of consistent growth continues to come from the wide variety of talents of our dedicated staff around the world.”
(Jim Evans)

India - QSC is celebrating the inauguration of its new SAARC headquarters in Bengaluru. The new 9,270sq.ft office serves as a business development, management and support hub for QSC systems, live sound and cinema businesses in the region. It also acts as a training and demonstration area and includes a 13,760sq.ft terrace for customer events.
“Over the last few years, QSC has been dedicated to growing its international presence, and this new entity is a crucial piece of that strategy,” says Markus Winkler, SVP, EMEA South Asia, & managing director QSC EMEA GmbH. “As we continue to experience tremendous growth in SAARC year-over-year in all our business units, this dedicated facility will allows us to accelerate our growth trajectory in the coming years.”
“Our business partners in SAARC have been instrumental in our success and will continue to be our main focus as we work together to develop new opportunities in all vertical markets,” says Rajesh Mittal, managing director, QSC India and SAARC. “The ability to offer in-region support resources in addition to our comprehensive solutions portfolio allows us to better equip our partners with the right tools to grow their business and deepen customer relationships.
“In addition, we can give customers a first-hand experience of QSC solutions, as well as local training, including the Q-SYS Architect training program, enabling our customers and partners to understand the QSC difference.”
Winkler continues: “In addition to this new office, we are excited to announce the promoti

Australia - The Star Casino in Sydney has unveiled its immersive indoor light and water display, featuring a crescent-shaped video screen based on Black Onyx LED panels by ROE Visual.
The Grand Foyer experience at the Star Casino in Sydney, combines LED screens, aquatic water fountains, lasers, light and live performances to offer an interactive arrival experience for its approx. 20,000 guests that pass through the foyer every day.
Big Screen Projects were commissioned by Ramus Illumination to supply the LED equipment for the refurbishment of the Grand Foyer, the total immersive installation amounting to a 22m dollar investment for the Star Casino.
For this project Big Screen Projects have been working together with lighting specialists Ramus Illumination, who specialise in the design of grand-scale theatrical experiences that encourage public engagement.
The screen showcases the works of Australian artists, university students, cinematographers and animators, the content reacting dynamically to the real-world environment and human movement, encouraging guest interaction. “Creating an installation that combines architecture, contemporary art and technology, states Dino Mezzatesta, the Star Sydney chief operating officer, inspiration behind the artworks was drawn from The Star’s proximity to the busy Sydney Harbour shoreline.”
“With The Star Sydney Grand Foyer experience, we wanted to design an experience full of compelling encounters that enrich the journey,” comments Bruce Ramus, who heads Ramus Illumination, we envisioned a

USA - The youngest country music artist to be inducted into the Grand Ole Opry, Kelsea Ballerini began her career with the release of her album, The First Time in 2015 followed by Unapologetically released in 2017, the same year in which she received a Best New Artist nomination at the Grammy Awards.
Ballerini just finished her Miss Me More tour with audio support from Spectrum Sound of Nashville using a d&b audiotechnik KSL line array system. “We have been thrilled with the product and are long standing fans of d&b,” states Chris Diener, production manager and front of house engineer for the tour.
“The KSL System offers unprecedented control for an enclosure of its size. Coupled with the SL-SUBs, I was amazed at the evenness of coverage from the pit to the top seat in the arenas. This system has changed the way that fans experience Kelsea's show, and we couldn’t be more impressed with the reaction.”
Diener said that Bobby George and the rest of the Spectrum Sound team have been very supportive and really turned the crew loose to see what the KSL can do, noting, “It was crazy. On more than one occasion, I had to walk out past the stage just to make sure walk-in music was still playing. I can’t wait to take this rig out again."
The d&b configuration includes 28 KSL8 boxes with ArrayProcessing for the main hang, 12 V12 loudspeakers for the side-hang, 12 SL-SUBs on the ground, eight Y10P loudspeakers for front-fill and two DS10 Audio network bridge systems for stage control.
“The KSL is an i

World - One of the most successful, if at times controversial rap/rock stars, Post Malone has shown on his current world tour his total command of arena stages as a solo performer. The multi-platinum artist has been assisted in no small part by his lighting designer Ben Dalgleish.
The LD showed his creative skill six months ago at PostyFest, the artist’s one-day festival in his native Texas, where he used 133 of his favoured GLP’s X4 Bar 20 battens at the Dos Equis Arena in Dallas. But on this latest arena tour, which began in February in Dublin, moved to mainland UK and Europe, and is presently in Australia and New Zealand, his approach was entirely different.
Explaining the conceptual background, the American-based New Zealander said that with beams intending to fire between an overhead ‘top box’ and a ‘runway’ on the ground, they had found they could replace the proposed sheet lasers entirely with the X4 Bar 20s . . . an epiphany of sorts discovered during the month spent in pre-production at Fly By Nite rehearsal studios. “That was the major change,” he said. “We then replicated the lighting under the riser, and with the beams shooting up we could create a good interplay between bottom and top. We created an iconic look for the song Candy Paint, based off a unusual rainbow effect with the X4 Bar 20’s.”
The rig was based around making the Bars in perfect symmetry around the side of the boxes to produce clean lines. “The fixtures locked together well to create those straight lines,” he says, “but it required great atten

USA - House of worship AV specialist MABE was recently tapped to design and install new audio, video, and lighting systems for Grace City Church’s freshly-renovated Lakeside Campus in Lakeland, Florida. Anchoring the audio system in the 792-seat auditorium are loudspeakers from Adamson Systems Engineering’s install-focused IS-Series, selected for their pristine audio performance and sleek, unobtrusive aesthetic.
“We had many discussions on which line array would offer the performance and warmth that Grace City was looking for,” begins Steve Griner, lead account manager with MABE. “Our conclusion was Adamson’s IS-Series, which provides plenty of volume and impact while maintaining a smooth sound at higher SPLs with no harshness.”
“We wanted to give 800 people an amazing experience in church, and not have one seat with a different audio experience than another,” adds Chase Wagner, Grace City’s creative arts pastor. “We also wanted a warm-sounding speaker that didn’t need to be run at an overly loud volume to still sound huge. Adamson delivered an amazing product that fulfilled all of our needs.”
The solution for the Lakeside Campus auditorium includes main left-right arrays of eight IS10 two-way, full-range cabinets in front of four flown IS119 subwoofers per side. Three IS10p point-source cabinets are flown as left, centre, and right fills, and an additional complement of seven PC5 compact two-way coaxial loudspeakers was sourced for front-fills.
“MABE has worked closely with us at every step of the process of our

China - K-array's K-academy took its teachings on the road for a week of seminars throughout China in Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai that covered Large Venue Sound System Design hosted by K-array China.
At each stop, K-array China were able to give attendees a complete K-experience with product presentations and demos of its Installed Sound, Portable Systems and Concert Series lines. K-array Global president and co-founder Alex Tatini and live sound product specialist Klaus Hausherr were present to provide a detailed introduction to the Italian manufacturer's product design concept for large venues.
In particular, the K-academy trainers explained the advantages of Electronic Beam Steering, Pure Array Technology and Slim Array Technology featured in their loudspeakers from a technical perspective and included real time demonstrations using EaseFocus software based on FIRmaker for speaker tuning.
Additionally, other relevant industry experts were invited to provide an encompassing approach to sound design, including Mr. Zhu Heng, a well-known engineer in the field of architectural acoustics, who presented on the relationship between the acoustic environment and the electroacoustic system.
Beyerdynamic wireless system engineer Chen Yugong's gave a presentation which explained the necessity of frequency planning.
In Hangzhou, a K-array Concert Series set-up was on display outdoors to allow the audience experience the uniform coverage and high performance sound. And at VAS Livehouse, the site of the K-academy in Shanghai, top talent It

Japan - Maxell Aqua Park Shinagawa collaborated with Hibino and Harman Professional Solutions to implement an audio system that provides immersive live entertainment while showcasing the charms of marine life.
Maxell Aqua Park Shinagawa is an aquarium in urban Tokyo that showcases the mysterious and colourful marine world. The aquarium offers a range of programmes reflecting seasonal characteristics and popular trends - especially The Stadium which is a massive round pool, featuring performing dolphins.
“To ensure that all visitors can hear the performances clearly, the management requested us to implement a system that would produce crystal clear, immersive sound in every corner of the venue,” said the spokesperson at Hibino. “To provide balanced audio coverage, we used JBL's AWC Series waterproof speakers along with Crown amplifiers and a range of other Harman accessories. This new system delivers seamless coverage across the entire venue, ensuring that every guest receives the same, compelling listening experience.”
To improve performances and immerse the audience, JBL AWC Series speakers were installed in The Stadium. AWC159 loudspeakers were installed to provide more extensive coverage and cover a greater area with fewer speakers. AWC15LF subwoofers were utilised for additional low-frequency support.
In addition, Crown DCi 4|600N amplifiers and BSS BLU-160 digital audio processors were installed, enabling flexible control over the outputs of 16 AWC Series speakers. Also, to add high-quality, realistic sound effects to moving obj

Sweden - Gruppo Italiano’s latest restaurant venture in Stockholm, Ciccio’s is the fourth establishment of the family-run restaurant group, and perhaps the most ambitious. Inspired by New York’s Little Italy district, Ciccio’s is designed to be “a meeting place that blurs the boundaries between work, eating, drinking and socialising”. To help create the right atmosphere, Gruppo Italiano turned to systems integrator, Hages in Stockholm, who supplied and installed a Genelec sound system.
Hages specialises in audio design for public spaces, and especially restaurants. CEO Thomas Axelsson explains that they were contacted by the restaurant group in the very early stages of the project and asked to design the audio environment for the new restaurant: “Being involved so early in the construction process was a huge advantage as it enabled us to measure and calibrate the space accurately and include the speakers in the blueprints. As a result, we knew that once the speakers had been installed, we would achieve the same level of sound distribution throughout the entire space.”
For this project, Axelsson opted for a total of 16 Genelec 4030C loudspeakers from the installation-specific 4000 Series. “We chose the 4030C because the sound is incredibly precise, and it has great range and power. In fact, the low end is powerful enough that it makes the need for an additional bass speaker almost redundant. We did add bandpass subwoofers in a few places because we had the budget to do it and it just fills out the sound a bit more at the bottom end, but

Australia - Sydney-based event production and management company AGB Events has announced plans to expand, bringing its vision and talents to festivals, museums, cultural/heritage celebrations and other events and locations around the world.
AGB Events was founded in 2006 by Anthony Bastic, who has spent decades in the entertainment and events industry, including as creative director for the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games Live Sites and the recent Invictus Games Sydney 2018. Bastic is best known as curator of Destination NSW’s annual Vivid Light Sydney.
“We specialise in imagining, producing and delivering cutting edge creative and cultural event concepts. AGB Events has a long track record of developing unique content that engages audiences in superb spectacles,” says Bastic, “and we plan to bring our extensive expertise and skills to organisations worldwide.
“Our strength is in storytelling in a way that resonates, excites and deepens understanding,” he continues, “whether that’s for governments, arts festivals, heritage sites and events or corporations - capturing imaginations in innovative ways with light and sound, creating digital stories for content from the present day to content that may be centuries old. We can do that on the largest scale imaginable - as we did recently for Parrtjima - or for the most intimate of gatherings.
“For us, technology is an extremely powerful enabler of beautiful and immersive experiences - but it’s the experience, not the technology, that is always centre stage. Our overrid

UK - Taiwanese singer and film star Jay Chou has starred in Hollywood blockbusters, broken records for the most expensive live production in Australia and sold over 30 million albums worldwide.
Chou recently entrusted Britannia Row Productions to deliver one of the biggest PA rigs that London’s O2 Arena has ever seen.
For the final three concerts of his 120-date The Invincible 2 World Tour, Chou played two nights in London before deploying the Britannia Row rig for a final show at Paris’ Accor Arena. These three shows were promoted by Magic-Sound Entertainment.
Britannia Row crew chief, Scott Maxwell, says: “Jay is a huge star. We’re essentially working with a stadium-sized PA in an arena-sized production. Everything else in the design had to shrink down to fit inside the venue, but the PA remained the same.”
The entire production weighed in at 107 tonnes and used 208 overhead motors, 44 automation points, 274 rigging points, 14 under-stage lifts and featured a four-minute 180kg confetti hit, meaning the audio delivery had to have ample impact. Britannia Row’s Josh Lloyd designed an L-Acoustics system for the European dates, which featured main hangs of K1, flown K1 SBs, K2 delays and K2 under hangs below the main K1 hangs. The system was powered by 72 LA8 amplifiers and used Lake processing.
Maxwell continues: “One of our biggest challenges in the audio team was working between multiple departments who were all using aerial equipment - there are so many design elements going on, it’s unlike any other show I

USA - Visitors to InfoComm 2019 will be able to both see and hear the new Versarray Mk III and Versarray PRO compact line array systems from Crest Audio, plus a host of other Crest and PCA product in audio demo room W224A. Hour-long demos will be running every day at 10am, 12pm, 2pm and 4pm. Attendees will also be able to see the products up close and meet the team to get advice on how a Crest/Peavey solution might suit their needs.
The ‘headline act’ in the Crest demo room is the new Versarray Mk III which was first seen at NAMM in January. The system comprises the Versarray 112 Mk III passive ribbon tweeter line array element featuring a 12” Black Widow Neo series woofer combined with a neodymium-based Peavey ribbon tweeter, and its companion subwoofer, the dual 18” Versarray 218 Mk III.
Designed to provide modular coverage of small to medium-sized venues, Versarray Mk III - which will be powered by Crest Audio amplifiers - combines versatility with high performance in a robust, easy-to-rig package, says the company.
Starring alongside Versarray Mk III is sister system, Versarray PRO, which offers all of the performance benefits of Versarray Mk III in a Dante-enabled, self-powered package. Both systems benefit from Peavey’s ingenious FlyQWIK fully articulated rigging system.
Also gracing the stage will be the new installation-friendly marine-grade Elements CS Series from Peavey. These fully weatherproof IP56-rated loudspeakers are specially designed to withstand the ravages of salt water. Peavey will also be demonstrating the RBN p

UK - Martin Audio has announced BlacklineX Powered, bringing new active options to the BlacklineX family.
Comprising the 12” XP12 and 15” XP15 full range enclosures plus the compact but powerful 18” XP118 subwoofer, BlacklineX Powered integrates acoustic, DSP and amplifier technologies to achieve clarity, precision and richness of tone. The range’s debut follows the international success of the passive BlacklineX Series of portable enclosures, the fastest-selling portable series in Martin Audio’s 48-year history.
In addition, BlacklineX Powered offers optional Bluetooth control, streaming and a built-in three channel mixer, placing increased flexibility and features within easy reach of every user, from live venues, DJs and corporate events to permanent installs, particularly houses of worship. Users will also recognise the road-ready construction, quick set-up and adaptability of this range developed by one of pro audio’s founding brands.
“BlacklineX was the first series the team developed and launched after I became Managing Director,” recalls Martin Audio MD, Dom Harter. “It’s become the fastest selling portable series the company has ever launched and a significant contributing factor in Martin Audio’s rapid success over the last three years. The introduction of a self-powered series makes perfect sense and by leveraging our engineers’ expertise in acoustic, DSP and amplifier technologies, we have crafted a very forward-looking portable range with a classic Martin Audio sound.”
BlacklineX Powered will begin ship

France - Creating an immersive environment at a music festival starts with the stage, but it by no means ends there. This was the guiding philosophy that Vincent Rautureau and his team at Giglam SA followed when lighting the Weather Festival, which returned to Paris’ La Seine Musicale on 27 April after a two-year hiatus.
Rautureau and his associates certainly endowed the stage with dynamic looks to support the pulsating sounds of international EDM and alternative music stars like Daniel Avery, OKO DJ and Ciel, but their creative vision also extended beyond the immediate performance area. Seeking to engage the festival crowd on multiple levels, they turned much of the event’s island venue into a vibrant panorama with help from 140 Chauvet Professional EPIX Strip IP fixtures, supplied by Alive Events Angers.
“We positioned the EPIX Strips on all of the festival site’s bridges,” says Andreas Monschauer, lighting engineer at Giglam. “This turned the bridges into graphical elements, which really integrated the whole festival into one panorama. Using the strips this way gave our design a whole other dimension.”
Adding to the impact of the EPIX Strip IP fixtures were the stunning video images and patterns that Giglam pixel mapped on the one-meter RGB LED strip fixtures, using a ChamSys Magic MQ500 console.
“Displaying the graphic effects on the ÉPIX Strips was very important to creating an overall look that tied the festival together,” says Monschauer. “The ChamSys console made it much easier for us to create these looks. We c

USA - As part of on-going upgrades and developments to its studio facilities, Verizon Media has taken delivery of three mc²36 audio production consoles and a Nova37 Hybrid IP/MADI Plug&Play Audio Router for its studio facilities from German IP broadcast technology pioneer Lawo.
Renamed Verizon Media Studios (formerly Oath Inc) early in 2019, the renovation and new buildout to the facilities will serve all Verizon Media brands, including Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, Huffpost, Yahoo News, RYOT, Engadget, Tech Crunch and Makers. It encompasses live broadcast and pre-tape studio content with shared resources across different locations.
With DSI/Blade Media acting as the main contractor, the upgrade covers three studios; Control Room 1 and Control Room 3 are used for a daily eight-hour live Yahoo Finance broadcast and ancillary shoots, while Control Room 2 is a general-purpose studio for all other of Verizon brands. These have been equipped with three Lawo mc²36 consoles and a Nova37, accompanied by four Lawo A-mic8 microphone interfaces. The intention is to add two further A-mic8s in the near future.
With work begun in 2018, these studios are currently operational with Stage 2 of the project to follow, bringing additional live studio spaces into play.
“We are scaling globally and the ease of interconnectivity, strong system engineering team and customer service that Lawo provides has made planning for the future exciting and easy to understand,’ says Dan Brantigan head of audio at Verizon Media Studios. “I’ve been exceedingly impress

South Africa - After a successful dot2 training course created, hosted and taught by DWR Distribution in Johannesburg, there was a demand for the same training to take place in Cape Town. The training was brought down to the Cape by Olebogeng Boinamo from DWR.
“It was booked out with 12 people and it filled our Cape Town offices,” says Olebogeng. Each student had access to the system as there were three dot2 consoles from DWR, three of those in attendance had their own dot2s and the rest worked on dot2 on PC. This illustrates the different levels that exist in the field and the impact of the dot2 console, with avid users and newcomers both attending the course to develop their skills, because the console and related PC platform are being used so frequently in the industry.
“The students reflected the Capetonian relaxed attitude as they were eager to talk and ask questions which usually requires an ice breaker but right from the word go they were participating.”
The students were also keen to provide feedback and one noted the dot2 training was the most complete and professional training he had received so far, reflecting the dot2’s importance and Olebogeng’s passion.
(Jim Evans)

Germany - The latest EtherCAT Plug Fest welcomed 57 participants from eight countries and four continents.
The event, conducted by the EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG) in cooperation with acontis technologies GmbH, was held in the middle of May in Ravensburg.
Besides testing their own EtherCAT devices in a shared network with those of other manufacturers by using the EtherCAT Conformance Test Tool, the participants could exchange knowledge and ask for advice from the EtherCAT experts on-site. The different masters and lave products led to a balanced ratio of devices and real-life network conditions.
Christoph Widmann, managing director at acontis technologies GmbH, comments: “The EtherCAT Plug Fests are the perfect opportunity to test devices and applications in a large network together with other manufacturers. For that reason, acontis has participated in many Plug Fests in the past. As a long-term member of EtherCAT Technology Group, we’re extraordinarily happy to host an EtherCAT Plug Fest ourselves.”
Florian Hammel, one of the on-site EtherCAT experts, adds: “This Plug Fest met the customary high standard, the atmosphere among the participants was good and the location was perfect to connect the huge number of devices and work efficiently. The positive feedback from the participating device manufacturers confirms the event’s continued success.”
ETG hosts EtherCAT Plug Fests all over the world several times a year to provide practical support for its members during EtherCAT device development.
(Jim Evans)

Sweden - One of the largest and most beautiful of Stockholm’s churches, the Gustav Vasa Kyrka, in the city’s Vasastaden district, has carried out a major refurbishment and technical upgrade.
The Gustav Vasa Kyrka was designed by August Lindegren and completed in 1906, with a capacity of up to 1,200 worshippers, generations of whom have no doubt marvelled at the lavishly decorated marble surfaces, and soaring arches. They also can’t have failed to notice the remarkable reverberation time.
Jacob Julin of Soundcop, the company brought in to solve the church’s intelligibility woes, says, “The acoustics was the biggest challenge. When we started, the hall had an acoustic reverberation of six seconds, so that was of course an issue.”
Later however, following the building’s refurbishment, including new treatments to the floor and walls, that reverb time had risen to seven-and-a-half seconds. Julin continues, “The worst of the reverberation is between 300-500 Hz, so it is possible to improve it with a little bit of system trim, but the reverberation is very long in full frequency as well.”
Representing Svenska Kyrkan, facilities manager Urban Paulander says: “What we wanted was a system which would make speech and music as clear as possible for all the listeners in all areas of the church.”
d&b xC-Series column loudspeakers, which SoundCop had used successfully in Stockholm’s Maria Magdalena church the year before, were well suited to the task. Purchased via ARVA Trading, the d&b audiotechnik distributor for Swe

The Netherlands - For 77 years the locomotive repair facility in the Dutch city of Tilburg was a vital part of the Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS, or Dutch Railways) network. Employing hundreds of local people, its 2009 closure had a profound effect on the area. But now the building has been reborn as a major cultural and learning centre, where Yamaha audio systems are helping to drive the train of new innovation forward.
Originally opened in 1932, the impressive 90m by 60m steel and glass building was a busy workplace, playing an important role in local employment. When it closed, rather than demolish it there was a strong desire to ‘return the building to the Tilburg people’. It was decided to use it to form the centrepiece of a contemporary, fashionable new ‘railway zone’ in the city.
“Impressed by the enormous size of the space, the design team realised that it is more than just a building,” says Dennis van der Vleuten, owner of Klundert Audiovisueel, who was commissioned to install AV solutions in the redeveloped facility. “It is a part of the urban fabric of the city that, with its heavy construction and internal ambience that gets lighter the further up you go, would provide a fantastic spatial experience.”
Reopened in 2019 and renamed LocHal (short for Locomotive Hall), it has been converted into a modern, sustainable art and cultural centre, featuring a relocated Tilburg Central Library as well as spaces for meetings, education, hospitality, artistic and cultural development, a cafe and more. Each space has been carefully desi

UK - LED illumination specialists LED Creative supported scenic designer Andrew Gates, lighting director Stuart Pring and the team at Joe Lycett's Got Your Back.
Filmed in front of a studio audience at h Studio, London, the series features comedian Joe Lycett serving up a healthy dose of consumer justice as he exposes a variety of scams, appalling customer service and unacceptable consumer standards on behalf of the people of the UK.
Helping to acheive the show’s bright, playful look, LED Creative provided their Pulse Wands, Alpha 60 and Byte System to deliver vibrant colour and optimum control over the set illumination.
In building the boldly coloured design, the scenic designer cleverly integrated LED Creative Alpha 60 throughout the structural components and backdrop. Additional runs of Alpha 60 were concealed above and below the raised stage area to create a halo effect around its perimeter.
LED Creative Pulse Wands were also applied to the installation dynamic shape and form.
Lighting director Stuart Pring says: “The plug-and-play nature of LED Creative’s Pulse Wands make them ideal as a simple to rig, highly controllable solution. The ability to manage the colour and intensity of the output allowed us to add some interesting effects to the set.”
The LD continues: “The design featured semi opaque perspex lightboxes which were rigged with Pulse Wands to form abstract illuminated shapes. We also positioned them behind the windows that flanked the stage and behind the audience adding a further dimension to the wi