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20 September 2024

Spain - Currently touring to promote their second album Fuego, Spanish band Xeria has also mastered LightShark so that they can easily adapt their own show to suit different sized venues.

Lighting designer Alex Conde, founder of Aconde Design, was commissioned to design the lighting for the band Xeria, who are currently touring Spain to promote their new album Fuego.

"My main responsibility was designing the layout of the lighting equipment, programming the lighting for each song, and automating MIDI commands with Xeria’s Cymatic Audio LP-16 MIDI audio system and an IRing MIDI 2 adapter,” he explains.

“For this tour Xeria is using four Equipson Mark Beam 201 moving heads, eight Equipson Mark Mbar RGB 4 lighting bars, and four Equipson Mark MF 1500 VT fog machines. To ensure that the lighting setup matched their music,

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20 September 2024

USA - Stanford, Kentucky, is a small yet charming city in the southernmost part of the Bluegrass region. Founded in 1775, Stanford is one of the oldest settlements in the state and boasts a rich history with landmarks like the William Whitley House, the first brick house west of the Allegheny Mountains, and a key site in the early days of horse racing in Kentucky.

Just off Main Street lies Stanford Baptist, a quiet and unassuming church with seating for more than 300 people. Although open and airy, the vaulted ceilings in the sanctuary compromised the speech intelligibility of liturgical services. Amplifiers from LEA Professional were the chosen solution to help solve the church’s audio challenges.

Church staff contacted Alex Peake, an integration specialist at JCA Media, to design a new audio system for the sanctuary. Peake recommended LEA’s Con

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20 September 2024

USA The popular WOW - Women Of Wrestling TV series’ acronym is also represented by those three simple letters: W O W. This branding theme is spelled out in light by 64 Chauvet Professional COLORado PXL Curve 12 motorised battens supplied by Felix Lighting.

The impressive flourish is part of a dynamic lighting design by five-time Emmy Award winner Darren Langer, working with LD Felix Peralta and drafter Chris Fernandez.

“This was our first season with the series,” said Langer of LA-based DC Lighting. “Our client, co-founder and co-owner David McLane, was an inspiration for us in this project. David and his business partner, WOW co-owner and co-founder, Jeanie Buss, wanted their new season of WOW to have a more theatrical WOW factor.” 

“Our design team collaborating with the production designer James Connelly, embraced the

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20 September 2024

Norway - Casa Mia is a popular Italian restaurant located in the town of Lillestrom. Run by Antonio Lepore, who hails from southern Italy and has enjoyed more than 40 years in the hospitality business.

As an experienced restaurateur, Antonino is aware of the importance of high-quality audio in creating exactly the right ambience for his customers, and earlier this year took the decision to install a new sound system at Casa Mia.

He engaged local technology specialists Norsk Tele og Data to install a solution, and they in turn consulted with AV specialist distributor CBK about the best way forward. Following a site visit and meeting with the owner, Per-Øystein Berglund of CBK recommended HH Audio loudspeakers and subsequently designed a system for the venue.

He explains: “Casa Mia wanted a system that could reproduce audio as a ‘carpet’

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20 September 2024

Belgium - EventCom is a specialist in the provision and rental of AV equipment based in Gembloux, in French-speaking Belgium, managed by director Thomas Richard.

The company has invested in a number of Robe mobile lighting products, including the newest iFORTES and Esprites.

EventCom has also just completed a new extension to their warehouse and offices, which will triple their operational space to 2,600sq.m of storage and 600sq.m of office space. This will allow EventCom to operate more efficiently and grow as planned over the coming years.

“Robe is the top brand right with an excellent range of fixtures and a great reputation for reliability and value,” stated Thomas, whose first purchase was 24 x MegaPointes in 2021 which have worked constantly ever since.

“Getting MegaPointes really did have that much impact, they were that

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20 September 2024

Australia - The North Wollongong Hotel is a large multi-faceted hospitality venue in the centre of Wollongong, New South Wales. Popularly known as the North Gong Hotel, it features a bar, bistro, beer garden and an upstairs function area which caters for private events. Live music, DJ sets, televised sport and pool tables all feature in this vibrant and very busy setting, for which high quality audio is essential.

North Gong’s management team recently took the decision to replace the venue’s ageing audio system, recognising that it was no longer fit for purpose, and engaged Dan Chapman of Data Dan to install an upgrade. With support from Scott Angove of Audio Brands Australia, Dan designed and installed a future-proof, quality system which featured loudspeakers from Optimal Audio.

Josh Hill, the venue’s manager comments: “Having good audio is

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20 September 2024

UK - Astera’s new LunaBulb product – launched in May – won a coveted PLASA Award for Innovation earlier this month during the PLASA at Olympia in London.

This adds to the product’s growing collection of accolades which has also recently included a Best of Show award conferred by film-tv-video at the EuroCine expo in Munich in July.

PLASA’s Awards for Innovation judging panel commented that LunaBulb “combines a broad feature-set in a much-loved conventional aesthetic”, which clearly impressed them as much as it has many Astera customers and users.

LunaBulb weighs in at just 81 grams (0.179 lbs) and is designed for indoor and outdoor use. Key features are DMX control, full-colour RGBMA and a CCT range from 1,750K to 20,000K and five inbuilt wireless technologies (CRMX, RDM, Bluetooth, WiFi, IR, and UHF), and naturally it is compat

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20 September 2024

Europe - DAP has announced the release of the DAP Frigga, a new single-column plug-and-play PA system designed to meet the growing demand for sophisticated, high-performance audio solutions in the modern event industry.

Designed to support singer/songwriters, corporate presenters, DJs, and event venues, the DAP Frigga delivers sound quality and versatility. It features a robust amplifier with three dedicated channels for subwoofer and mid/high frequencies, delivering up to 1000 W RMS and 2000 W peak.

The system includes a powerful subwoofer with two 12-inch woofers to deliver the deep bass that is the foundation of a rich audio experience. The top speaker is meticulously designed with six 4-inch neodymium midrange drivers arranged in a line-array configuration for optimum sound dispersion and minimal distortion. Centred within this array is a 1.5-inc

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19 September 2024

UK - Serious Stages wrapped up a successful summer, providing stages and site structures for BBC Radio 2’s Party in the Park concert in Moor Park, Preston, 6-8 September.

More than 60,000 fans enjoyed artists featured on the Serious TZ 25m roof main stage for two days, included Sting, The Pet Shop Boys, The Manic Street Preachers, The Sugarbabes, Sister Sledge, Travis, Paul Heaton and Snow Patrol. The stage was designed in collaboration with clients Festival Republic and the BBC, creating a striking performance area. It was flanked by goalposts carrying PA speakers and giant LED screens, with extensions for a DJ platform, stage right, for Radio 2 DJ sets between bands, with a total frontage of 55m.

Serious also installed the stage platform in the tented Radio 2 stage, which featured DJ sets on Friday night and throughout Saturday and Sunday, along

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19 September 2024

Europe - Icon of the Seas, Royal Caribbean International’s new ship, built at the Meyer Turku shipyard in Turku, Finland, features more than 40 different entertainment, leisure, and retail spaces, including three primary entertainment venues. The Royal Theatre presents full-scale productions, including the first rendition of The Wizard of Oz at sea; Absolute Zero is a premium ice-skating arena; and the Aqua Theatre features aqua shows put on by a cast of aerialists, high divers, robots and synchronised swimmers.

Two of Icon’s main entertainment venues – Royal Theatre and Absolute Zero – have Robe moving lights at the heart of their installed lighting rigs, while approximately 250 other Robe and Anolis LED fixtures are being used throughout the ship in 10 separate areas.

The various Robe fixtures include iForte, Forte FS and iForte FS

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19 September 2024

Germany - This year’s Wohlsein Open Air festival took place in the castle and meadow park in the city of Paderborn on 18-21 July.

An audience of 6,000 enjoyed headline performances from top German rock band the H-Blockx, Hanover indie-funk band Jeremias and rapper and singer Jan Delay.

Paderborn-based event production specialists Sound Linear rigged an all-Nexo main stage that drew on both line array and point-source speaker ranges from the French manufacturer’s catalogue, including left and right hangs of 15 compact STM M28 omni modules with bass extension from separate hangs of eight STM B112. A total of 32 x STM S118 subs were stacked across the front of the stage.

Left and right arrays of six Nexo Geo M10 performed out-fill duties, while five P12s from Nexo’s P+ Series were deployed as front-fills. The highly versatile P12s were als

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19 September 2024

Germany - The best 64 drift drivers meet in the City of Iron every year to determine the title of Iron Drift King. Amidst the impressive backdrop of the Ferropolis Industrial Museum with its giant open-cast mining excavators, the professionals raced on a customised racetrack in front of thousands of spectators.

The drift manoeuvres were dynamically staged by the technical service provider i:TECS Event Production, which used the Cameo Oron H2 IP65 Hybrid Phosphor Laser Moving Heads for the first time.

The i:TECS team placed a total of 30 Oron H2s on the roofs and booms of the four bucket wheel excavators in Ferropolis in order to effectively stage the races in the open-air arena.

“We have significantly expanded the lighting concept for Iron Drift King compared to last year, and decided to use moving lights on the excavators for the first tim

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19 September 2024

UK - L-Acoustics has unveiled HYRISS (Hyperreal Immersive Sound Space), a groundbreaking audio solution set to redefine how we experience spaces through sound. HYRISS represents a paradigm shift in design, elevating the role of audio to match the importance of visual aesthetics in creating truly immersive, emotionally resonant environments.

In an era where visual design often takes centre stage, HYRISS elevates the ambiance of our most cherished living and gathering spaces by making sound an integral part of the environment. This innovative system combines L-Acoustics' cutting-edge hardware, software, and services to create adaptable, high-quality sound environments suitable for a wide range of applications, from luxurious residences and yachts to high-end hospitality and corporate settings.

"For too long, the audio experience has been secondary to v

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19 September 2024

USA - When FOH engineer Chris Leonard took up his latest role, piloting the sound for country star Jason Aldean, he wasted no time in streamlining his FOH setup. “I took up the position in February, spent March prepping and hit the festival scene in April; so it needed to be a fast transition,” he said.

One of his concerns was lack of familiarity with the existing SSL L550 Plus FOH console. “While it is an amazing desk, I didn’t want to try and learn a new console on a gig of this size.” Instead, he turned to his trusty DiGiCo Quantum 338. His other concern was the need for a reduced footprint, noting there had been no available room in the I/O rack to put both a split and two SD racks. “All of the sub snakes hit that rack and routed straight to the SSL [ML32:32] I/O boxes,” he said.

Chris Leonard looked at various options for integrati

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19 September 2024

Europe - In the wake of a successful IBC show in Amsterdam, Lawo, developer of the Ravenna audio-over-IP technology, is pleased to welcome Norway-based Bridge Technologies as the latest partner to the growing Ravenna community.

The partnership represents not only Ravenna’s increasing importance in the field of audio-over-IP, but also Bridge’s commitment to the development of probes which support a full range of industry standards and facilitate monitoring of all kinds of broadcast networks, regardless of the infrastructure, standards or technologies upon which the network is based.

The collaboration saw one of Bridge’s VB440 probes in operation on the Ravenna booth at IBC 2024 as part of a next-generation audio production demonstration featuring S-ADM metadata transport over the recently released SMPTE ST 2110-41standard. Bridge also showcased

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19 September 2024

Europe - Launched at IBC 2024, the Sub-GHz BodyWave antenna promises notable increases in wireless range and reliability of signal in a form factor designed specifically to be compatible with virtually all body-worn UHF transmitter packs.

Raycom, a supplier of pro-audio solutions for TV and film production and AntennaWare, a developer of antenna technology, have announced the arrival of BodyWave for body-worn UHF wireless microphone transmitters. 

AntennaWare’s patented BodyWave antenna technology is a body-worn antenna specially designed for challenging RF environments, and this partnership brings the extended range and reliability credentials of BodyWave technology into the Sub-Ghz bandwidth for the first time – and in a form factor that works alongside current UHF transmitter packs for film and TV production.

CEO of Raycom, and RF gur

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18 September 2024

UK - Backup Tech has announced the latest Backup Ambassadors. Backup trustee, Koy Neminathan, has overseen the ambassador programme and is delighted to introduce Chris West, Lee House, Luke Edwards, Paul Jones and Amber Etra.

Ambassadors spread the word about what Backup does to the wider industry, encouraging companies to become Backup partners and helping individuals raise money for Backup through fundraising initiatives. Ambassadors also attend live activities, meetings and events, including the annual Backup Village Fete.

It is a great way to get involved with the charity and help get others involved, too. Chris, Lee, Luke and Amber explain why they decided to get involved with Backup and what they hope to achieve for the charity.

Chris West runs West Training Services and decided to become an ambassador to help ensure the future of the c

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18 September 2024

USA - Kylie Minogue may finally be ready to conquer the United States, as she recently capped her first Las Vegas residency at the Venetian Resort’s new Voltaire venue. Tension, her 16th studio album released late last year, reached the number-one slot – her ninth LP to do so – on the heels of sell-out shows in London, Rabat, and Athens this year.

Kylie has toured 19 times since 1989, selling out arenas and stadiums globally. For much of that run she’s been accompanied on the road by DiGiCo, most recently with a Quantum852 console in her monitor world. That desk, piloted by IEM engineer Kevin Glendinning, was supplied by Solotech UK for her recent run of shows in Europe.

Glendinning, whose live-mix portfolio includes work with Miley Cyrus, Ariana Grande, and Mumford & Sons, among others, first encountered Minogue mixing her stage

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18 September 2024

UK - Production Futures, the organisation founded to create opportunities for young people to learn, train, network and develop real careers in every sector of the production industries, has announced a collaboration with the Institute of Sound, Communications and Visual Engineers (ISCVE). The aim of the partnership is to strengthen industry links and provide clear pathways for newcomers in the sound, communication and visual engineering sectors.

As part of the ISCVE Early Careers Committee’s commitment to supporting the next generation of professionals, the collaboration will help to further bridge the gap between education and industry, offering links to ISCVE’s range of free and paid training programmes via the Production Futures platform, giving education partners and newcomers access to essential learning tools.

Jason Williams, early careers

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18 September 2024

South Africa - One of South Africa’s leading educational institutions, North West University (NWU), has chosen power solutions from LSC Control Systems at the core of the recent technical upgrade of its largest performance space, the Sanlam Auditorium. The APS (Advanced Power Systems) units were provided and installed by LSC’s South African representative, DWR Distribution.

Sited at NWU’s campus in the city of Potchefstroom, around 120km to the southwest of Johannesburg, the 957-capacity Sanlam Auditorium is the hub of NWU’s cultural life, hosting a varied programme of theatre, conferences, film screenings, dance, musical performances, lectures and ceremonial functions.

Recently, the time had come for the venue to undertake a complete upgrade of its ageing lighting system, which included fixtures approaching 40 years of service. Glenn Cunniff