USA - In 2018, the historic Rialto Theatre in Loveland, Colorado chose an Alcons Audio LR7 pro-ribbon micro line array system to deliver audio, while preserving the ambience of its protected 1920s decor. At the time its existing subwoofers had to be used, but the theatre has now been upgraded with Alcons subwoofers, bringing the audio system to its full potential.
Since 1996 the restored Rialto has thrived as a combined movie house, live arts venue, and community centre. When the city-owned venue’s sound reinforcement system was updated three years ago, it was a challenge to find a system which could deliver powerful, high-quality sound in a space with a lot of hard, flat surfaces. Not only that, but it now hosted a much broader range of events than the venue was designed for.
The solution was an Alcons system comprising eight 6.5” LR7/90 micro line array modules per side, two SR9 double 5” micro monitors as front-fills, all powered and controlled by Sentinel amplified loudspeaker controllers. This transformed the quality and detail of the sound for all the Rialto’s events from physically small arrays. Budget constraints meant that the subwoofers could not be updated at the time and, in a subsequent upgrade, a pair of Alcons Cinemarray CRA24 double 12” medium format, line source loudspeakers were as a centre screen channel for movie shows and center cluster for other productions.
Now, in the third phase, the replacement of the original subwoofers with three double 18” Alcons BF362iMkII high output subwoofers and a further 4x2500w Sentine

The Netherlands - A technical upgrade at the Chassé Theater in Breda sees the installation of 12 x Zero 88 Chilli Pro 24x16A Bypass dimmers and five Zero 88 Chilli Pro 6x25A dimmers in Jupilerzaal, the venue’s main auditorium where they will be controlling approximately 309 channels of lighting and LED fixtures, including some moving lights as needed / specified by the production.
The venue is one of the Netherlands’ largest venues, with a total of three auditoriums and three cinema spaces, mostly a receiving house – anything from music and bands to drama and dance plus amateur and semi-pro performances as well as corporate and private events and conferences, so a truly ‘multi-purpose’ space that is also a diverse cultural melting pot.
The Chassé Theater also stages some of its own productions, and a typical (pre-pandemic) year would see around 350 live performances and 3500 plus film screenings across all the different spaces.
Chassé Theater technical manager Jordy ten Bloemendal is proud to have worked there for 12 years, and is responsible for the lighting installations, budgeting and – together with his colleagues – future visions and planning. He co-ordinates with all the various incoming production companies, ensures all their technical needs are met, and on occasion still programmes and operates the lighting console.
This was the combination of a general technical upgrade and the replacement of the previous dimmers which had been in service for 25 years. The new dimmers were supplied via Zero 88’s distributor, AED

Spain - Equipson's loudspeaker products were chosen by TecnoSonido when it was tasked with installing a new audio system at a five-star hotel on the Costa Blanca.
With a customer profile that includes both national and international guests, the SH Villa Gadea hotel in Altea, Alicante, was keen to ensure that its new restaurant, the Purple Rain Lounge, delivered a sophisticated and enjoyable ambiance. Sound was a key part of this requirement as the hotel wanted to ensure that customers could hear music being played, but not at the expense of their own conversations.
"When we go to a restaurant for dinner, we don't want to listen to loud music," says TecnoSonido's managing director Alexis Roldan. "What we are looking for, in addition to a good dish, is a pleasant atmosphere for all the senses. This is where sound plays a very important role."
TecnoSonido's brief for the Purple Rain Lounge project was very clear. The hotel wanted a sound system that allowed every diner to hear the music, not matter where they were seated. The system also needed to have independent volume control for each area of the restaurant – and the actual loudspeakers had to be sufficiently discreet that they didn't spoil the aesthetics of the room.
"Every detail of the restaurant was taken into account," says Alexis. "From the paintings on the wall, which all have a bold touch and lots of personality, to the carpet on the floor and the absorbents placed in the columns to improve sound quality. And, of course, the restaurant's gastronomy and cocktails are some of the most dem

UK - The live events sector is set to get a boost with a government-backed insurance scheme worth over £750m, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced yesterday (5 August).
The news comes after many months of campaigning by the events sector and the wider music industry for the introduction of such a scheme. However, it comes too late for many, with over fifty per cent of scheduled festivals – both large and small – cancelled or postponed.
The government has partnered with Lloyd’s to deliver the Live Events Reinsurance Scheme as part of the Plan for Jobs. The scheme will see the government act as a ‘reinsurer’ – stepping in with a guarantee to make sure insurers can offer the products events companies need.
This scheme will support live events across the UK that are open to the general public - such as music festivals and business events. It will cover costs incurred in the event of cancellation due to the event being legally unable to happen due to Government Covid restrictions.
A number of prominent insurers in the Lloyd’s market, including Arch, Beazley, Dale, Hiscox and Munich Re are supporting the scheme which will provide events companies with the option of purchasing cover from next month, alongside standard commercial events insurance.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak said: “The events sector supports hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country, and I know organisers are raring to go now that restrictions have been lifted. But the lack of the right kind of insurance is proving a problem, so as the econo

Turkey - Turkey’s first virtual production house, MGX Studio, owned by MGX Film, is a revolutionary virtual production (VP) facility based in Istanbul. By bringing together both conventional and pioneering technologies used by cinematographers globally, MGX offers a next-generation LED stage with industry-leading Brompton Technology processing, advanced camera tracking solutions, in-camera VFX, plus a host of pre- and post-production tools, allowing directors and filmmakers to create enriched interactive environments.
The story of MGX Studio began during the pandemic. “We decided to use the time when we were confined to our homes wisely, researching and looking for the latest technologies in VP,” says Halit Gülmez, technical director at MGX. “MGX Film’s owner, Müşvik Guluzade, was a great inspiration to all of us as he was the first to recognise the power of virtual production and its influence on the global cinematography industry. He was the first to fully embrace the technology and bring it back to Turkey, establishing the country’s very first virtual production facility, MGX Studio.”
With Guluzade at the helm, the MGX team took its first steps to not only achieving the 'know-how' of the new technology, but also being a VP facility that guides the technology rather than follows it.
The team completed studio installation within five months, with MGX CTO and studio manager, Fatih Eke, being instrumental in choosing the right equipment. “After spending three months doing research and looking at other facilities like the ILM Stag

UK - The partners behind 5G Festival have successfully completed the second set of trials to test critical aspects of the technology that will be used to deliver a music collaboration toolset and experience for artists, audiences and venues. The results will deliver the world’s first 5G powered hybrid immersive festival experience early next year.
The social and economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the live music industry has been severe. 5G Festival is part of efforts across the sector to create innovative platforms for musicians and artists to write, rehearse and produce music despite geographical barriers, and deliver new, engaging ways for audiences to interact with live performances.
5G Festival will showcase creative talent blended with the power of advanced digital technologies, broadcast live directly to audiences at remote locations from world-leading venues, and producing novel immersive in-venue experiences. The recent trials built on the practical testing and research established during the first stage trials held in March 2021 with the aim of having artists collaborate from different locations to see how an immersive festival experience would work both in a venue and at home.
A new group called The Remotes - the most data divided band in the UK - was put together especially for the trials, led by musical director Kojo Samuel, who has worked with Stormzy, Jess Glynne and Dave. A collaboration of experienced session musicians, The Remotes rehearsed and performed from physically separate locations. A vocalist and drummer wer

UK - Doughty Engineering and PSI have teamed up to deliver the design and installation of specialist infrastructure at the Grand Opera House in Belfast.
PSI were contracted by Tracey Brothers to facilitate the design and installation on the project which included a complete rewire of the production lighting and control, dimmers, audio, comms, stage management desks, show relay, foyer paging as well as providing a new house lighting system and additional elements to the in-house stage engineering system. All packages were specified by Charcoalblue.
PSI, who are dealers for Doughty in both Northern Ireland and Ireland, brought Doughty on board very early on in the project. David Mckeown, project manager explained: “Work commenced on site in January 2020 and then the pandemic hit in March. Initially the programme was ten months to hand over at the end of October 2020, but this was then extended to March 21.”
He continued: “Then, in January 2021, Brexit, along with the NI Protocol made the project even more difficult to manage than the pandemic and hence the programme was extended yet again to accommodate for this. Everything from delivery of goods to the wearing of additional PPE, a one-way system around the theatre and having to separate trades into designated areas proved difficult at first but like most, it became normalised.”
Working with Doughty, PSI specified a range of bespoke kit as well as a huge number of standard clamps and brackets, over 100 facility panels, standard clamps, truss brackets, boom arms and internally wired bars.

UK - Event production specialists, ADI, delivered a visual experience that transformed the ExCeL for the 2021 Heineken London E-Prix. Creative applications in LED and video featured across the venue, resulting in stylish sports presentation and a high-octane fan experience during the fully charged double-header, that was also the world’s first indoor-outdoor motorsport race.
Having first conceptualised ideas for Formula E London two years ago, ADI designed a huge modular set with over 100m of 3mm LED to create a show-stopping digital centrepiece. Over both race days the bespoke LED staging hosted live performances by Raye, TV presentation and podium celebrations, with the integration of multiple displays and content zones for re-active video and fan-rousing messaging.
Modular LED screens to stage left and right delivered coverage for fans inside the ExCeL, while outdoor spectators had huge iCONIC 60C mobile LED displays facing their grandstands.
Other bespoke digital elements included an LED gantry over the finish line to flag race winners and promote headline partners – as previously seen at the Diriyah and New York E-Prix’s – in addition to a super wide LED display in a camera-facing trackside position for Saudia Airlines.
ADI’s iCONIC H unit also featured inside the ExCeL to create a hub for trackside staff and VIP’s, with BMW’s latest electric fleet on display outside.
Complimenting the cutting-edge LED, ADI produced a wide variety of graphical and cinematic 4K video assets that amplified Formula E values, partner bra

UK - Based in the heart of the Lake District, in Bowness-on Windermere, The Ro is a new hotel with a big personality. This new venue is aiming to become a destination for both tourists and locals alike.
The Ro prides itself on its chic design, coupled with familiar and friendly ‘northern’ service. As part of the development, owners 7 Hospitality Management brought in APM Design to deliver the interior design scheme for the hotel. APM Design then appointed custom sign specialists Sutton Creative to the project, to produce the signage package. Working from the approved branding document, Sutton Creative created a variety of options for the wayfinding and exterior signage to fit in with both the client and the designer’s expectations.
Speaking of the partnership, Andy McCluskey, Design Director at APM Design said: “We have worked with Andrew Sutton for many years, and we value his experience, creativity and eye for detail.
“During The Ro project, Sutton Creative fully understood the ethos for the new interior concept, and together with the new branding package they created a series of ideas and material physical samples. This greatly assisted the client and the design team in the decision-making process.
“The whole process was carried out efficiently, with Sutton Creative working closely with the client to deliver the package on time and to budget.”
Andrew Sutton, director at Sutton Creative, added: “We were honoured to be asked to produce signage for such a beautiful building. The Ro is a stand-out hotel in a unique loca

Japan - Twenty years ago, the city of Kumagaya in Saitama Prefecture opened its Cultural & Creative Centre to offer cultural entertainment to locals and tourists. The centre is named Sakura MATE – Sakura, for the cherry blossoms, which are the symbol of Kumagaya, and MATE, for Music, Art, Theatre and Expression.
For two decades, Sakura MATE has hosted a diverse mixture of various traditional and contemporary performances using a sound system that, more and more, became inadequate for the venue. The city turned to Sigma Communications to recommend a sound system upgrade, which took place over three years.
The centre boasts an open-air Wind Theatre, a small Moon Hall, and the principal Sun Hall, which seats a thousand people in its shoebox-shaped auditorium. The multi-story space was built with side and rear balconies to create a sense of unity between performers and the audience. Drapes and other devices allow the Sun Hall’s room to be adapted to different performance genres, and a large door on the rear wall can be opened to join with the outdoor Wind Theatre.
“The original sound system deteriorated to the point where it was no longer safe to use. It was also placed in a way that resulted in irregular SPL coverage and areas with poor intelligibility,” explains Hiroyuki Kurita, sound engineer at Sigma Communications. Constant volume and equalisation adjustments were necessary to compensate for this degradation. “We needed to ensure that the new system would deliver clean, clear sound, no matter where you are in the hall,” he says.

Canada - The Laura C. Muir Performing Arts Theatre at Douglas College has undergone a significant upgrade, which includes a Christie Crimson 3DLP laser projector, and most recently, the installation of a Christie D4K40-RGB pure laser projector.
Douglas College educates close to 25,000 students a year, with two major campuses in Metro Vancouver. The Muir Theatre, located on the New Westminster Campus, is a fully equipped 350-seat facility used by students from the Theatre and Stagecraft programs who produce a production each semester in the theatre, as well as the Music Department for performances and classes, and by other departments for lectures and conferences. The College also rents the theatre for dance and music performances, as well as conferences.
The upgrade to Muir Theatre was completed in two phases and began in 2016 with lighting, video distribution and projection. Working with Scott Miller, Ryley Pynn and George Davidson of DWD Theatre Design and Sapphire Sound, the first phase included the installation of a Christie Crimson 3DLP laser projector for rear projection on the stage, which is used for conferences and events that require a smaller screen. The second phase, which began in 2019, saw the installation of a Christie D4K40-RGB pure laser projector.
“The primary objective of this second phase was to provide the Muir Theatre with the capability of showing cinema-grade movies and to be used during performing arts events and classes to provide dynamic backdrop images on the existing cyclorama or on our new screen,” says Brian Pratt,

USA - Transformation Church (TC), a multi-ethnic, multi-generational, mission-shaped community outside Charlotte in Indian Land, South Carolina, has added Ayrton Levante fixtures to its inventory of equipment used in producing worship services.
TC acquired the Levante fixtures from SES Integration, a division of Special Event Services located in North Carolina. Levante fixtures are a dramatically miniaturized version of Ayrton’s Bora wash light offering outstanding performance capabilities in an ultra-compact format. Levante’s optics produce an extremely uniform flat beam with no hot spot, ensuring a perfect colour mix regardless of the colour combination selected.
Jeff Cranfill, owner and lighting designer at Special Event Services, recommended the Levante to TC. "The entire line of Ayrton fixtures is very well constructed with high output and great features,” he says. “I have had great results using the Levante wash fixtures in concert and video settings. The beam is very smooth edge to edge, and the framing shutters make it easy to create a video-friendly wash across the entire stage down to a single spot.
“Colour temperature adjustments are very consistent fixture to fixture, and the range of colour temperature is large. This makes the fixture very usable in many environments. All of the Ayrton fixtures have very good optics along with even colour mixing and a great variety of gobos. They are some of the best LED source fixtures I have worked with, and I highly recommend them for touring and installs.”
Zach McCrorey, lighting

USA - A new addition to the San Diego skyline, The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park was built to host open-air concerts by the San Diego Symphony. The sheer size of the bayside structure - 57ft high, 92ft wide at stage front - makes it amenable to hosting large productions while enabling orchestra musicians to hear and respond to one other as well as they would in a top-tier concert hall.
To create an optimum acoustical listening environment that can be fine-tuned for various performances, a Meyer Sound Constellation system has been installed inside the shell - making it the first Constellation system designed for stage acoustics in an outdoor venue. The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park opens 6 August.
Pre-opening rehearsals and online concerts have elicited effusive praise from orchestra principals.
“The sound onstage is unbelievable,” San Diego Symphony music director Rafael Payare reports. “We can hear each other wonderfully and you feel like you are in one of the top-notch concert halls of the world.”
Equipping the shell structure with an active acoustic system for monitoring was strongly recommended by Shawn Murphy, an Oscar-winning film score mixer (and frequent FOH engineer for high-profile outdoor orchestral events) who served as special consultant to the symphony. Meyer Sound’s Constellation team designed the acoustic system, with complementary physical acoustics entrusted to Salter, the project’s acoustical and AV consultant.
Because many performances at the venue - most notably amplified pop or rock - would not use the Constella

UK - Woolwich Works is set to open in September, bringing a new creative district to southeast London.
Led by Royal Borough of Greenwich, the £31.6m project - which is transforming the historic Royal Arsenal site into a cultural hub that will include a concert venue, studios and other event spaces - will be the home for local performing arts collectives including immersive theatre company Punchdrunk, Europe's first majority black and minority ethnic orchestra Chineke! Orchestra, as well as National Youth Jazz Orchestra, Greenwich-based dance company Protein, and the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair.
The new district includes a 1,200 seated or 1,800 standing performance venue; an external courtyard for performances; five studios, which will also be used for performances and rehearsals spaces; cafe, bar and spaces for community groups and the general public, plus hire spaces for weddings, parties, conferences and events.
James Heaton, Woolwich Works chief executive, comments: “The past year has been painful. Hardship, loss and suffering are not the things that should be uniting people. That is the job of music, theatre, dance, circus, cabaret and comedy - and now, finally, shows are coming back. I’m excited that our stunning new venue will play a part in supporting artists to get back on stage, and bringing audiences back together to once again share the unique experience of live performance.
Woolwich Works and its artists in residence will work with the local community and schools on a wide range of projects and schemes once the district

Ecuador - Cinema chain Multicines has just opened a new multiplex in the city of Guayaquil in which all 11 screens are fully equipped with Christie RGB pure laser projectors. The installation was carried out by CES+ (Cinema Equipment & Supplies).
The multiplex is located in the Mall del Río shopping centre in Guayaquil, the country’s main port and largest city. “The 11-screen multiplex is equipped with leading-edge technology and with a totally innovative industrial design, unique in the country,” explained Gonzalo López, general manager of Multicines.
The multiplex includes a 4D E-Motion theatre with seating equipped with vibration and motion systems, as well as wind, water effects and scents. It also has a premium large format (PLF) theatre called Multicines Xtreme (MCX) with Dolby Atmos sound, premium seating and a giant screen measuring almost 200 square metres (2,152sq.ft).
It also has a kids’ theatre designed to give families and children a totally new experience. It includes seats in different colours and a slide that connects with a playroom at the back of the theatre.
When choosing the projectors for its screens, Multicines, a long-standing Christie client, was never in doubt and put themselves in the hands of the brand once again. “Christie is a world leader when it comes to cinema projectors and we have always prided ourselves on having the best technology for our theatres,” stated Gonzalo López.
“RGB pure laser technology offers excellent quality coupled with energy efficiency,” adds López. “It affor

Germany - Located on the banks of the Danube in central southern Germany, the city of Ulm is an economic centre for eastern Baden-Württemberg and western Bavaria. Recently a new audio system was installed at Congress Centrum Ulm (CCU), the main city centre venue for corporate events and entertainment, with a Yamaha solution chosen for mixing and control.
Attached to the Maritim Hotel, Congress Centrum Ulm (CCU) features two main auditoriums, Einstein Saal and the smaller Kepler Saal, both with adjacent foyers, plus the outdoor Gartensaal. Einstein Saal can host gatherings of up to 1,500 people, with Einsteinfoyer able to accommodate a similar number for stand-up receptions.
The upgrade to the audio system took place during a short pause in Germany’s COVID-19 lockdown, which made straightforward installation and programming of the system a priority. Karlsruhe-based fein.media was contracted to design and install the system, which featured an MTX5-D matrix processor for central system control and routing, with a QL5 digital mixing console and Rio1608-D2 I/O rack installed in the Einstein Saal. The entire system was installed on a Dante network, with an MCP1 wall-mount panel providing straightforward control for venue staff.
“The system covers the main Einstein Saal, its foyer and there are additional delay lines to relay background music, announcements and event audio throughout CCU,” says Frank Müller, proprietor of fein.media.
“We chose the Yamaha solution because it is an industry standard. We have installed quite a few Yamaha syste

Guatemala - The Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala City, also known by its abbreviated name UFM, is one of the top universities in Latin America. For 50 years, UFM has been ardently following its mission of teaching and disseminating the ethical, legal and economic principles of a society of free and responsible individuals. The university is the original founder of the ITA scholarship programme which identifies the most highly qualified and motivated students among Guatemala’s poorest and makes it possible for them to earn a life-changing UFM degree.
Recently, the university’s IT and AV team worked with installer Farei to deploy Sennheiser TeamConnect Ceiling 2 (TCC2) microphones in 52 of its classrooms and various faculty auditoriums.
Whilst the plans for getting a new professional audio system had been in place for several years, the pandemic acted as a catalyst in the modernization of the university’s AV and IT infrastructures. The situation also resulted in adaptations to UFM’s collaboration and communication strategy, which now prioritizes hybrid teaching models, social distancing and touchless audio.
“To start with, we had to follow certain protocols and reduce the student capacity in all of our classrooms by distributing everyone into two groups of in-classroom and remote attendants,” said Víctor Zetina, chief of network infrastructure at UFM. “We then had to find a way to simultaneously teach and support both of these groups effectively by offering live sessions where everybody could join in.”
“When UFM

USA - The Scottish Rite Theatre (‘The Scotty’) in Peoria, Illinois, was built in 1925 as a Masonic cathedral. Recently, the Gothic-styled building underwent a $5m-plus renovation and now offers downtown Peoria a modern performance and event venue. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Scotty encompasses an 800-seat theatre, luminous stained-glass windows, a lower-level ballroom with capacity for 300 people, and more than 10,000ft of usable space, as well as a full basement kitchen and banquet facility. And it now boasts an L-Acoustics Syva sound system installed there earlier this year by the Chicago office of integrator Creative Technology.
“Syva was the perfect solution for audio reinforcement at the Scotty,” says Greg Moore, installations project manager for creative technology. “It had to sound great, which it does, but it also had to disappear. The aesthetics of this project were of paramount importance to the client. We were able to essentially camouflage the Syva, which we ordered in white from L-Acoustics, by installing them in the fluted trim around the sides of the proscenium.
“We used a combination of the manufacturer’s own mounting solutions and a custom Unistrut bracket to hang them. The slim-yet-powerful Syva form factor is a perfect fit with the venue’s proscenium architecture.”
The Scotty’s new system comprises one Syva enclosure mounted to each side of the stage, a white Syva Low sitting on the stage below each main Syva column, four KS21 subs in the orchestra pit, and six 5XT coaxials spread o

USA - Orchard Hill Church, located north of Pittsburgh in Wexford, offers a striking architectural design around its 1,200-seat auditorium. And just as modern is the church’s new sound technology, L-ISA by L-Acoustics, integrated as part of a $1.3m design-build renovation of the main worship centre.
“It’s been clearly shown that when we can connect what we see with what we hear, the technology disappears,” says Josh Maichele, L-Acoustics application manager, house of worship. Specifically, he says, our eyes want to watch a pastor on stage but our ears draw our vision towards the PA speakers reinforcing their voice.
L-ISA technology effectively disconnects the sound from the sound source, allowing audience members to focus their attention on the stage, immersing themselves in the content. “L-ISA makes the connection between sight and sound more natural, and in the process, breaks down the technical barriers to worship,” continues Maichele.
Orchard Hill Church technical director John Cornelius was introduced to L-ISA at the L-Acoustics facility in the Westlake Village neighbourhood of Los Angeles, where worship-technology directors can experience L-ISA first-hand, diving deeper into its technology. “It’s a step-by-step process, starting with a demo of the system and then sessions during which visitors can get hands-on with the mix, using pre-recorded worship tracks,” Maichele explains. “John arrived knowing nothing about L-ISA, and he left excited by its possibilities for Orchard Hill Church.”
Orchard Hill Church’s new L

UK - Unusual Rigging has completed a major refurbishment of the grid at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London’s West End ahead of the much-anticipated reopening of Phantom of the Opera next month.
When the Covid-19 pandemic forced the production to close its doors in March 2020, it opened a bitter-sweet opportunity to get some essential work done on the magnificent old theatre’s roof space, ensuring it could continue to stage the elaborate aspects of Phantom that audiences across the world know and love, including the famous hanging chandelier.
Jeremy Featherstone, Unusual Rigging explained: “Her Majesty’s Theatre is a wonderful building, but as with all old theatres, they need maintenance and continuous improvements to their structure in order to preserve them and allow them to continue hosting productions.
“Phantom is a heavy show and the grid, which should run in a straight line, has sagged by more than a foot over the past 120 years. The fly floor also had a significant bend in it. From a safety point of view, this is nothing to really worry about – wood is a material that can bend, but really we didn’t want it to bend any further. Unusual was employed to take as much weight off the grid as possible and come up with an alternative solution.”
The solution comes in the form of a massive steel truss, designed by Unusual at its Northamptonshire HQ, which has been installed on either side of the stage, between the proscenium wall and the upstage wall. It includes a drop-down to take a significant amount of scenery off

USA - Peak City Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado, is a contemporary Christian church experiencing a high level of growth. The church recently moved to a new location with room to expand its congregation, services, and community outreach and looked to LEA Professional to provide powerful amplification solutions to serve this growing community.
As part of the Church's plans to best address their current and future needs, managers reached out to AV systems integrator, Sight+Sound Technologies to design and install sound, lighting, and video systems that included a new distributed audio system for their lobby/cafe and common-space hallway area, and systems for their multi-use classrooms.
Kris Johnson, the chief operating officer for Sight+Sound Technologies (SST), was one of the key project point people for the new Peak City Church sound system expansion. SST has been an LEA Professional amplifier reseller and installer for the last couple of years and has placed LEA amps into a range of applications.
"We put in place five LEA Connect Series 704D, four-channel amplifiers - two supporting the distributed audio and three more amps, one in each of the classrooms. We did their whole distributed audio through the lobby and in the hallways with the LEA amps," adds Johnson. "All their sound systems are now on the same Dante network so that we can distribute the sound anywhere we want, which is a very nice growth feature for the church."
Johnson continues: "The 704D is one of our favourite amps; we keep a couple of them on the shelf because they alway

South Korea - TechDataPS Cocollaborated with All That Sound to equip YeonCheon Sureul Art Hall with a Harman Professional audio solution.
Located in Yeoncheon-gun, Gyeonggi-do, Yeoncheon Sureul Art Hall is a cultural facility that offers a variety of performances, including small plays, musicals and solo concerts. The venue houses both a 580-seat grand concert hall and a smaller 166-capacity concert hall. Organisers wanted an audio system that evenly transmitted sound, achieved a sound pressure deviation of +/- 3dB for over 90% of the audience and provided impactful performances for shows of all genres.
To supplement the venue’s existing JBL VT4887A line array loudspeakers, the installation team equipped the venue with a range of JBL solutions including VTX V20 and VTX S25 line array speakers, VTX M20 stage monitors, AC18 two-way speakers, 308P MkII studio monitors, Control 28-1 indoor/outdoor speakers and Control 24CT ceiling speakers.
For amplification, Crown I-Tech 4X3500HD, Crown DCi 2|300N and Crown DCi 4|300N power amplifiers provide consistent power output and user-friendly interfaces. Finally, the Soundcraft Vi series digital live sound console ensures comprehensive, crystal-clear coverage throughout the venue thanks to their extensive I/O and powerful DSP.
Organisers at the YeonCheon Sureul Art Hall reported that TechDataPS both faithfully repaired the venue’s existing system and accommodated the unique infrastructure while installing new products. They are especially delighted with the Soundcraft Vi console, which will be of gre

USA - The Robson Performing Arts Centre in Claremore recently completed a stage lighting and control upgrade with over 300 LED luminaires and a networked control solution from Vari-Lite and Strand, Signify entertainment lighting brands.
“We wanted LED equipment that would give comparable functionality to our previous fixtures, along with some added ‘eye candy’ elements to enhance our performances,” explains technical director Pamela Neuok, who turned to theatre consultancy Schuler Shook, the original theatreconsultant for the building, to advise on the specification.
Schuler Shook prioritized high quality light output and technology that would be both accessible to students and powerful enough for a professional theatre programme. “The Strand products met our design criteria very well,” says Schuler Shook’s Jack Hagler.
The final design and installation, completed by Batts AVL, features 112 Full Colour and 84 Tunable Warm White Strand Leko LED Profiles, six Vari-Lite VLZ Profile fixtures, Vari-Lite SL BAR 660 and 640 fixtures for cycs and drops, plus a wide selection of 78 VL800 Series fixtures, including Eventpar, Propar and Eventwash models.
For control, the intuitive touchscreen interface, scalability and sophisticated LED control of Strand’s NEO Console were considered an appropriate fit for the needs of both an educational environment and a busy performing arts centre. The NEO system also integrates seamlessly with Strand’s Vision.net controls for house lighting management.
“We have been having a lot of fun lear

UK - Based in Glasgow, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is a world-leading conservatoire of music, drama, dance, production and film. Founded in 1847, it now has more than 1,300 students studying undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and, pre-COVID, staged over 600 live performances across its professional venues throughout the year. It recently opened a new rehearsal and performance space for its students and approached White Light (WL) to provide the lighting equipment.
As part of its COVID-19 response plan, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland realised that building occupancy numbers and social distancing were going to play a key part in ensuring it could continue to deliver technical training and support to all its students. The decision was made to transfer a rehearsal studio into a new, fully-equipped performance space that would allow both performance and production students to keep learning throughout the pandemic and beyond.
Dave Evans, lighting tutor at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, explains: “The equipment chosen would be used across theatrical plays, dance and musical theatre, and ensure that all of these production styles could also be filmed; something that has become a necessity with live audiences at a minimum. Therefore, we had to look for equipment that could provide both a high quality of light, but also be a useful teaching and learning tool for developing technicians and lighting designers,”
Prior to this upgrade, the rehearsal studio had a simple overhead grid of 48mm pipe, providing a rigging area, and was equipp