UK - Manchester-based DJ training facility Make Me A DJ recently refitted one of its trio of studios with Artnovion acoustic treatment panels as part of an upgrade to transform the space into a fully-featured teaching and music production resource. Originally situated above Sankeys nightclub, Make Me A DJ is now located in the Ancoats district of the city, with its three studios commercially available outside of teaching sessions.
A variety of Artnovion products featured in the refit, including Orion W wooden and Andes fabric absorbers to control excessive reverberation and reflections and Myron E diffusers to tune the room’s sweet spot. Orion bass traps were also employed for their fine-tuning capabilities, ensuring an accurate, highly-controlled low end even at high monitoring or mixing levels.
MMADJ founder Mark Bradbury (known as Rudosa in the international techno scene) has released tracks on some of the most venerated techno labels including Moments In Time, Soma, We Are The Brave and Second State over the last 10 years.
“It has always been important to me to have industry-standard equipment in our studios,” he explains, “so that alongside our highly experienced teaching staff - all of whom have professional backgrounds in music production - students get a feel for real world facilities.
“I first became aware of Artnovion when our room designer, Jan Morel (acoustician who numbers David Guetta and Martin Garrix among his clients), introduced the range to me a few years ago and we used the products in one of our downstairs studi

USA - In April, Yaamava’ Resort & Casino, owned by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, opened its new 2,600-seat entertainment venue, the Yaamava’ Theatre, topping off the property’s four-year, $760m expansion.
Meaning “spring” in Serrano, the Band’s native language, Yaamava’ is located in the L.A. exurb of Highland, an area already loaded with entertainment options. With that in mind, the Band sought to distinguish its new theatre - part of one of the largest casino properties on the West Coast with eight restaurants and eight bars, plus an onsite hotel opened last December - from the competition.
That mission was accomplished with the installation of an L-Acoustics K Series sound system designed by L-Acoustics senior Applications Engineer for Installations André Pichette and integrated by the Escondido office of Sound Image. “Clarity, coverage, and sound quality were the keys to what the clients were looking to accomplish with the theatre’s sound,” says Scott Coyle, business development manager for Sound Image's contracting division. “K Series components met all of those criteria, and more.”
The new L-Acoustics system in the Yaamava’ Theater, which opened with a VIP command performance by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, is substantial, underscoring the venue’s scale.
The main PA system comprises a dozen K2 flown per side, each backed by four flown K1-SB subs, and complemented by four stage-stacked KS28 subs per side. Nine coaxial X8 are used to provide stage-lip front-fill, plus two more as out-fills, while ni

Ghana - A new 4,400-seat, three-storey church in the Ghanaian capital of Accra has been equipped with Martin Audio’s new Wavefront Precision line array system.
Part of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) - with a global outreach overseen by founder, Rev. Dr. Mensa Otabil - sound consultancy and installation were undertaken by London-based Ghanaian production engineer and integrator, Eben Awuah of Amson Audio.
Awuah has been working with professional sound systems since the age of 13, having been associated with the Dominion Centre, Wood Green, and specified many world leading brands along the way. He first became aware of Martin Audio four or five years ago while working as production engineer for another company. “But the time came when I wanted to set up my own AV operation to serve the whole of West Africa, including Nigeria and the Ivory Coast. I needed to go back there with a recognised system and Martin Audio was one of the premier brands I was looking at.”
The big turning point came when he attended a Martin Audio open day three years ago - just as the plan for Christ Temple East was being outlined - and heard the scalable Wavefront Precision Compact optimised array for the first time. “It coincided with just having finished an installation in Nigeria [with another leading system]. Although that sounded great, what I heard from WPC gave me the headroom I needed for this project.”
This was very much foremost in his mind when he was brought in as a consultant by the ICGC for their new project, described as a ‘Pentec

USA - Established in 1932, City Church of Madison, Wisconsin, has a striking modernist exterior and a spacious, 800-seat, modern sanctuary with complete stage and AV production capabilities.
For years, City Church has relied on live stage productions supported by multiple large video projection screens, professional lighting and a full pro-audio-quality sound system to engage the congregation. But faced with the expanding scope and vision of the church's AV productions, City Church recently did a substantial systems upgrade by engineering and installing a completely new production workflow built upon Dante audio and the new Dante AV networked video platform.
“We have always believed in using technology to eliminate distractions and deliver our message in a clear, compelling and engaging way,” says Nathan Rohde, worship pastor, City Church. “We basically just did a complete overhaul of the entire sanctuary so we can now integrate audio and video seamlessly throughout our church, our education facilities and online.”
Rohde explained that the church needed to advance its capabilities on several fronts. The production quality in the sanctuary needed improving, and full AV content needed to be shared more extensively throughout the church facility. Leadership also wanted a better way to bring the same quality of their live productions to their streaming media services.
“As we researched potential network solutions, we learned about Dante AV and the Dante AV-enabled encoders from Patton. This looked like the direction we needed to go,” s

India - Mumbai’s luxury private members-only club, Jolie’s sprawls over an impressive 20,000sq.ft. To elevate the customer experience, the club features a premium Genelec loudspeaker solution, which was integrated by Genelec’s local AV distribution partner Pandam Professional Audio.
Abhishek Bindal, the senior vice president of Jolie’s, approached Pandam’s owner Prashant Damle for consultation. In response, Abhishek and his team were invited to Pandam’s Genelec Experience Centre located in Mahim, Mumbai, where they decided to go with Genelec.
Under the guidance of Prashant, the project was planned over a two-month period. However, the actual integration was carried out in a tight 20-day period, leaving no room for error. In total, over 40 loudspeakers were deployed, with the assistance of Pandam Audio’s installation engineer, Sunil Jambhale. This includes a relatively even split of Genelec S360A and 8010A models, complemented by four 7382A subwoofers to handle low frequency duties.
Any questions or further support that Club Jolie required would be directed towards Nikhil Pagedar, Pandam’s customer support engineer.
Prashant explains the key decisions: “In the event space area we installed the S360As paired with a 7382A subwoofer. This combination delivers a class-leading balance of extraordinary SPL output, wide dynamic range and an intensely detailed, transparent performance." It was important to equip this room with the capacity to satisfy a wide range of different functions, which is precisely what this Genelec pairing a

USA - First established in 1891, First Baptist Concord (FBC) is a Knoxville-area church that has witnessed considerable change over its 130 years. When FBC took on the renovation of its 25-year-old main Worship Centre last year, it chose to install L-ISA immersive technology using an L-Acoustics A Series-based loudspeaker system to further deepen and enrich the worship experience for its congregation.
Following several successful one-off projects with Solotech, the church approached the company’s Nashville team again to help it design and integrate new audio, video, and lighting systems for the space. Solotech integrated systems designer Luke Lasater reports: “We worked closely with L-Acoustics to design two PA options for the church - a standard left/right system and an L-ISA option. After reviewing the designs with the church, all agreed L-ISA was the way to go for many reasons.”
Solotech brought in Design Technik to create an acoustics solution that would both help resolve the room’s acoustical issues and complement a new loudspeaker setup. L-Acoustics then worked with both Solotech and Design Technik using Soundvision modelling software to design the optimum system for the space, which is based on an A Series loudspeaker design.
FBC’s new system comprises five Scene arrays of four A15i Focus and one A15i Wide flanked by left and right extension arrays of one A10i Focus and two A10i Wide. Two hangs of three A15i Focus and one A15i Wide horizontally flown deliver out-fill coverage, while four KS28 subs flown in a cardioid configuration b

Singapore - The Singapore community had every reason to celebrate in a big way at this year’s Chingay Parade. The annual event honouring the Chinese New Year was not only celebrating its 50th anniversary, it was also returning to a live extravaganza format after the pandemic minimised the festivities for the past two years.
CSP Productions, a Clear-Com global rental group partner in Singapore, provided intercom support for the 2022 Chingay show, deploying a Clear-Com Eclipse HX Digital Matrix solution with FreeSpeak II Digital Wireless systems. The equipment’s flexibility and performance were a match for the challenging production requirements, scope and timeline of this year’s festival.
The Chingay Parade started in 1973 as a street parade and has evolved into an event showcasing Singapore’s multi-ethnic and cosmopolitan cultures. This year, more than 500 performers from Singapore and around the world performed at the 90-minute event, held at the Jewel Changi Airport's HSBC Rain Vortex atrium.
CSP Productions configured the Clear-Com systems for compatibility with the walkie-talkies used by crews and in-ear monitors used by hosts and talent. An added challenge was the need to link panels for the video team over a distance of several hundred meters, accomplished by using a BroaMan MUX22, a fibre multiplexer for audio, video and data transport device that converts 4-wire signals to fibre and back to four-wire signals.
According to Jaymie Foo, project manager and crew chief at CSP Productions, the 2022 event was the largest combination

France - The world’s largest cruise ship, Royal Caribbean International’s Wonder of the Seas will have four Robe RoboSpot systems installed in its 1,600-seat capacity Main Theatre, and two more in Studio B, which is the Royal Caribbean ice rink.
The four RoboSpot BaseStations in the Main Theatre will be controlling eight Forte moving lights from Robe, each running in conjunction with four motion cameras. Meanwhile, the two BaseStations in the ice rink will be used with four Esprite LED Profiles.
This installation builds on the success of RoboSpots installed as a remote follow spotting solution in the Two70 venue aboard Royal Caribbean’s Odyssey of the Seas, which commenced service in 2021.
The Wonder Main Theatre show will be an all-singing, all-dancing Broadway-style production, complete with aerialists, drones, and complex automated scenery, with lighting designed by Rui Rita.
Project managing the vessel’s show lighting installations for Royal Caribbean was Ben Couling, who worked closely on Wonder of the Seas with Gaëtan Mornet of cruise AV integration specialist, Videlio-HMS from St. Nazaire which completed the installation.
The relationship between Royal Caribbean and Robe started when Miami-based Christopher Vlassopulos, Royal Caribbean’s sound, light, and AV systems manager for new build projects, and Amir El Yordi from Control AV Miami visited the Robe booth at LDI 2019, whilst Odyssey was already under construction.
For the Wonder Main Theatre, the RoboSpot BaseStations and operators are concealed from view on

South Korea - To provide intelligible sound throughout Busan’s Eun-pa Church, TechDataPS Co outfitted the worship space with advanced JBL Professional loudspeakers and Crown amplifiers.
Established in 1971, Eun-pa Church has been providing worship services for more than 50 years. The church’s current facility was built in 2004 and required renovation after almost 20 years of use, including structural reinforcements to increase safety as well as a new sound reinforcement system for improved sound quality and flexibility.
TechDataPS reports that their client wanted the highest quality-audio system within their budget and was not satisfied after receiving quotes from multiple brands. They added that after visiting TechDataPS' showroom, the church’s pastor personally selected the JBL VTX A8 loudspeakers because he was satisfied with their performance.
For primary sound reinforcement, TechDataPS decided an 8-inch loudspeaker was the right choice for the size of the space, deploying a total of 12 JBL VTX A8 line array loudspeakers (six per side). While the church had previously used a number of delay speakers to cover the area under its balcony, the VTX A8s provided more than enough coverage on their own, eliminating the need for additional speakers.
To meet the church’s request for powerful bass output, TechDataPS supplemented the main line arrays with two JBL VTX B18 subwoofers per side
To power the system, TechDataPS equipped the church with Crown I-Tech 4x3500HD amplifiers.
Eun-pa Church described the new audio system as simp

USA - Following a successful installation at La Grande Boucherie in Midtown Manhattan last year, Bond Applied Technology has again installed Martin Audio’s CDD speaker series in another top New York restaurant.
This time, the action moved to the TriBeCa district of Lower Manhattan, and a new boutique Mexican restaurant called Casa Carmen, which has been equipped with 10 ultra-compact CDD6 enclosures and four concealed SX110 subwoofers.
Collaborating once again with interior designer Julien Legeard (of Legeard Studio) -as at La Grande Boucherie - Bond director, Christopher Mayes-Wright, once again adopted the coaxial differential dispersion technology of Martin Audio’s tried and trusted CDD.
“My experience with CDD speakers has been nothing but amazing every time,” says Mayes-Wright. “I’ve been able to compare them in situ with other similar speakers and the clarity and accuracy of imaging and voicing is noticeably miles better.
“Some folks think this is irrelevant in an installation environment where there are so many factors affecting acoustic performance - asymmetrical rooms, a mixture of often highly reflective materials such as tiles and glass. But I believe that in these circumstances it’s even more important to have a perfectly tight and controlled sound coming from your loudspeakers, to avoid what I call the ‘shopping mall effect’, which you find in lots of spaces where the sound comes from above.
“What tends to happen is that the sound energy just floats around untamed in a vast layer above the heads of the

Portugal - Teatro Garcia de Resende was recently renovated and selected ETC lighting solutions including ArcLamp luminaires, ArcMesh Drivers and an Echo control system to upgrade the space.
The theatre, which is recognised for its interior ‘Italian-style’ architectural beauty, was built in the 19th century and is a part of the European Route of Historic Theatres: a route around Europe which distinguishes the most beautiful, historic theatres that represent European cultural heritage.
The theatre’s technical director, António Rebocho, was in search of LED lighting to replace the existing tungsten lights in the building. He particularly wanted an LED solution which would not compromise the quality of the light or increase maintenance costs. After researching various options, António decided to go with ETC’s ArcLamp luminaires commenting that he had “never seen the room so beautiful - the new lights enhanced all the colours, especially the red tones”.
ETC dealer, NAN Audiovisuals installed 108 ArcLamp lights with Fade to Warm feature technology into the Teatro Garcia de Resende. The LED luminaires provide quality light, smooth dimming and up to 90% energy savings.
António Rebocho comments, “ArcLamp has improved the quality of light in the theatre whist simultaneously reducing the maintenance costs related to lamp replacements and energy consumption. Being able to control the lighting from the installed button stations and lighting desks was also a great improvement.”
ETC regional sales manager Konstantinos Vonofakidis ad

Poland - The country’s largest drama theatre has reopened after lockdown, to reveal a major renovation to its various spaces, which took up much of 2021.
In order to preserve its impressive heritage, it was recognised that Jan Kochanowski Theatre in Opole (JK Opole Theatre) would need to undergo full modernisation, and a thorough overhaul of its technical infrastructure, fulfilling a dream it had nurtured for several years.
The cost of reconstruction was budgeted at PLN 25m ($6m US), with over half coming from EU funds.
The project, which took eight months to fulfil, included the renewal of the main building façade, the entrance and surroundings, the modernisation of stages and auditorium (including ventilation), as well as sound and lighting systems. This included a complete Optocore fibre network, based around the deployment of five AutoRouters.
The theatre layout itself includes the 575-seat Big Stage, with an impressive revolving stage; Small Stage (with 193 seats, in amphitheatre auditorium style); a Ground Floor stage known as the Bunker - and a Model Workshop (Modelatornia), with 140 seats in customisable configuration. This is where the idea of modernising the theatre's electroacoustic system first began in 2017 with the possibility of producing sound from each side, in any configuration.
As part of this project, a new theatre façade was made, and the ventilation and air conditioning system and part of the electrical installation of the building were modernised. At the same time, the Centre for Theatre Education was also est

USA - For most, the name Woodstock brings to mind New York’s famed 1969 rock music festival, or perhaps Snoopy’s feathered friend from Peanuts. But Atlantans will tell you that Woodstock is a city 30 miles north of downtown ATL, and that one of the longstanding beacons of that community is First Baptist Church Woodstock (FBCW), whose history traces back 185 years to 1837 when it was founded as Enon Church.
In 1986, when former Southern Baptist Convention president Johnny M. Hunt joined the church as senior pastor, FBCW truly flourished, leading to the 2005 construction of a 7,200-seat worship centre to accommodate its booming congregation of more than 20,000 members. Seventeen years later, the church has taken another major step forward by becoming the site of the world’s largest permanent installation of L-Acoustics L-ISA immersive sound technology.
Technology solutions provider Diversified was brought into the project nearly two years ago to provide the church with an AVL upgrade for its in-person Worship Centre experience. “We were asked to help them reimagine a venue that would feel equally intentional for both of those very different services,” recalls Tim Corder, Diversified director of strategic accounts, worship and performance environments. “After spending several days with the church’s creative team in an intense ideation session, we imagined a system anchored on the in-room experience that would have the ability to transition very quickly within a 15-minute turnaround from one service to the next.”
From the onset, the Dive

Belgium - De Vooruit in Ghent is an award-winning and historically significant festival and arts centre - originally built for the Flemish labour movement between 1911 and 1914 - as well as an interesting and eye-catching building containing multiple halls now mainly used for concerts, club nights, live performances and assorted cultural events.
The 1100-capacity Concert Hall venue has recently received a complete lighting upgrade, with Robe chosen as the moving light brand with a mixture of 31 x T1 Profiles, 12 x Spiider wash beams and 22 x LEDBeam 350s.
These were specified after discussions between De Vooruit’s technical crew co-ordinator Karel Clemminck and lighting expert Jarne Pollet, together with Peter Vanhove from locally based rental company, Euro PA. Peter has been involved with De Vooruit in different technical capacities since the 1980s.
The Concert Hall is one of four main functioning venues - plus the Grand Café - which, in a normal non-Covid year host over 700 shows and events. It is the main venue for music shows and club nights, with incoming productions utilising the house lighting and sound rigs augmented as necessary.
Before the lighting upgrade, Karel and Jarne brainstormed all the things that were most important for offering the best lighting options both for their clients and their own shows and wanted Robe T1 Profiles from the off.
“We loved the finesse of white light ranges and the T1 colour mixing generally,” stated Karel. While they originally thought this an ideal fixture for front lighting in the

USA - In the heart of a thriving section of Birmingham, Alabama, stands the Birmingham/Jefferson Convention Complex (BJCC) located in the Uptown Entertainment District.
The multi-use complex boasts 220,000sq.ft of flexible space which serves as a conference and entertainment destination for the city. The complex includes a 3,000-seat concert hall, two theatres: one 1,000-seat, and one 274-seat. The largest venue, Legacy Arena with 19,000 seats, has recently undergone a complete audio system overhaul.
Originally build back in 1976, Legacy Arena may be the most impressive renovation of the $300m expansion of the Birmingham/Jefferson Convention Complex, which began in 2018. Some of music’s biggest names performed at the arena - from Bob Dylan to Garth Brooks, Luciano Pavarotti to Prince, Led Zeppelin to Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Grateful Dead to Taylor Swift, Jay-Z to ZZ Top. It has hosted major sporting events as well and attractions from tractor pulls to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. It is now the chosen venue for the Birmingham Squadron, DanceSport and Gymnastics events for the 2022 World Games.
When Populous, the project architects for the BJCC renovation, required audio design services they brought in consultants Wrightson, Johnson, Haddon, Williams (WJHW) from Carrollton, Texas. Specialising in sound and video for many of the largest stadiums and arenas nationwide, WJHW senior consultant, Guillermo Wabi and his team were brought in to address the challenges and requirements for the arena and design a robust audio system for the

South Korea - In a city filled with thousands of houses of worship, Somang Presbyterian Church still stands above the rest as one of the most respected churches in Seoul.
Located in the heart of the fashionable Gangnam district, the church has been made famous by its long history, stretching back over more than 40 years, as well as its progressive use of technology in worship services. The most recent example - a top to bottom reinvention of its second sanctuary - has proven no less influential, drawing the attention of congregants and sound engineers alike.
Used primarily for wedding services and by the church’s youth group, Somang’s second sanctuary would feel like a main auditorium elsewhere. Yet for Jung Hak Kim and Seokwoo Choi of Star Networks, the space presented a number of challenges, including high reverberation that had made the previous audio system sound muddy.
“The old system had a lack of intelligibility which we needed to solve,” explains Jung Hak Kim. “Plus, the interior of the sanctuary has been completely renewed. We needed to ensure that the new system was unobtrusive and didn’t block the audience’s view of the new LED screen at the rear of the stage.”
He continues: “Like most churches, they didn’t want us to put subwoofers on the floor, mainly because of appearance, so I wanted to find an acoustically ideal position to provide even low-end coverage. We also had to eliminate the need for front-fills. Finally, we had to be careful to secure maximum gain before feedback – the pastor’s podium was moved

USA - Basesix Systems outfitted the recently opened Bellyard Hotel with JBL Professional loudspeakers and AMX networked AV systems to deliver quality sound and video content via an easy-to-use system.
Located in Atlanta’s historic West Midtown stockyards, the Bellyard Hotel by Marriott is the cornerstone of The Interlock, the city’s newest destination for high-end shopping and culture. During construction, the hotel’s leadership required guidance regarding the most suitable AV systems in the lobby, bar, conference rooms and outdoor section. To meet the hotel’s modern design and commitment to quality, Basesix Systems installed solutions by JBL Professional and AMX.
“The design was probably 80% complete, but there were several question marks,” said Dan Ford, systems director of AV, Basesix Systems. “The consultants looked for our guidance to fill in the blanks: In this conference room, what size should the displays be? Can we put outdoor speakers or displays in this particular area? If there’s none currently in the design, how does that impact the system? We have used Harman on very similar projects that we've done in the past, so we knew it was a good fit when we started working on the project.”
To distribute clear sound throughout the facility, the Basesix team installed a background music system that controls levels and processing for all communal areas from a central location. While the original design called for a non-JBL Professional brand speaker, Basesix instead recommended JBL Control Series speakers to take advantage of t

USA - Understanding that sound is the main motivator of any club, Photo City Music Hall looked to local power amp specialist Ashly Audio to provide a powerful, flexible solution to the venue’s needs. After ‘an overwhelmingly positive response’ to the recent installation of Ashly Audio’s amplifiers, Photo City Music Hall is ready to host larger, and louder, shows.
What began as a small venue has grown to be a Rochester staple. Photo City Music Hall originally opened in 2016 with owner Daniel Nielsen living in the green room for the first year and a half while growing the space. In the beginning most of the shows were punk or metal bands as well as comedy and burlesque shows.
However, during COVID, the venue rebranded and increased capacity to 500. This allowed them to focus more on music with 95% of shows being music related and EDM being a more popular genre. Most importantly, Photo City Music Hall is a community space that hosts benefit shows for organisations such as the local Leukemia Society as well as the LGBT community with their Pride Fest club pass.
“From when I started working with Photo City, there was always a vision to have it grow to what it is today. I’ve always been a fan of the sound quality of Ashly Audio’s equipment, especially their compressor and limiter algorithm, so they were a clear choice for this project,” states Justin Wyman, designer and installer, JWI Audio. “The artists that play at Photo City need power - from punk and rock’n’roll to EDM, burlesque and metal - the equipment used needs to have ama

Poland - A multi-functional building combining office and cultural spaces, Poland’s newly-constructed Cavatina Hall opened its doors at the start of this year. It is the only privately owned and funded concert hall in the country and its owners’ uncompromising approach to design demonstrates their ambition for the venue to become a landmark on Europe’s cultural map.
The six-storey multifunctional building counts over 9,000sq.m of A-class office space, a chamber music hall, and a recording studio. But the crown jewel of the building is the 1,000-capacity concert hall which boasts a stage with AV technology integrated into an extensive digital and analogue network, and L-Acoustics’ progressive L-ISA Immersive Hyperreal sound technology, delivered by Warsaw-based L-Acoustics certified provider distributor, Audio Plus.
The venue was created by Cavatina Holding, of one of Poland's largest property development companies. It is strategically situated in the multi-cultural Southern Poland city of Bielsko-Biała, an industrial and artistic hub nestled in the Beskidy mountains. Among the events hosted in the city is the historic jazz festival Bielska Zadymka Jazzowa, which now takes place in Cavatina Hall.
“We can confidently claim that Cavatina Hall is one of the best facilities of its kind in the world, combining commercial industry with the promotion of art in a unique and modern building,” explains Katarzyna Pytlarczyk, head of Fiducia Foundation, the administrator of Cavatina Hall. “The concert hall has been designed so that all types of m

Germany - Atrax, a mixing and mastering studio specialising in hip-hop and urban pop music, has been rebuilt using Van Damme Blue Series 8 core cables.
Based in Germany, Atrax now offers a modern workflow for customers all over the world.
For over 10 years, the studio has been helping artists to take their music to a new level. Whether it's mixing, mastering, recording or the entire production, it works with both newcomers and established artists, helping them get the perfect sound.
Thomas Merth, owner and CEO, Atrax Studios, comments: “We specialise in hip hop and urban pop and our customers expect quality at the highest level. I came to know and love Van Damme cables on many of the studio installations I have managed in the past. So it was easy to decide which cables to use for this rebuild. They’re absolutely reliable, the highest quality and have great handling."
Herpreet Kaur Singh, commercial director at VDC Trading says: “It’s lovely to hear stories like this and we strive to make every one of our customers as happy as Thomas. It’s been a pleasure working with Andre and Christian at Audiosteps to make this studio refurbishment a reality.”

Hungary - A Robe moving light rig comprising more than 350 fixtures was recently specified for the new 20,000-capacity MVM Dome in Budapest. The sports facility is Europe’s largest handball arena and will also be used for concerts and entertainment shows.
The Robe fixtures were specified by Visual Europe Group (VEG), the building’s technical management and services specialists, working in close consultation with Budapest-based AVL Trade which supplied the luminaires. The first event staged in the venue was the 2022 European Men’s Handball Championship Final, won by Sweden.
Most of the Robe luminaires - including 64 x Fortes, 64 x Tarrantulas, 64 x MegaPointes, 120 x Tetra2 moving LED battens and four Forte FollowSpots together with four RoboSpot remote follow systems - will be in use in the main arena space. They were used to great effect by lighting designer Attila Lenzser for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Men’s EHF Euro 2022 final.
Adam Nagy, project manager for AVL Trade, explained that the package also included 32 x Robe LEDBeam 350s and 16 x Robe ProMotion moving projectors which are destined for use in other parts of the building, like the extensive foyer spaces, conference suites and VIP lounges.
Due to the high trim height of the trussing mothergrid in the MVM Dome’s roof, they needed powerful fixtures and chose Fortes, launched last year for stadium and large venue / event applications.
The MVM Dome lighting spec featured as much LED as possible for all the obvious reasons including to be as sustainable a

UK - The National Youth Theatre raised £350,000 during a fundraising gala dinner, with support from production experts Light Fantastic Production Services.
The event, called Nostalgic Fantastic, was a fundraiser for the charity as well as a grand reveal of the newly renovated National Youth Theatre building. As such, the NYT team recognised that technical production was going to be key to showcasing both their cultural value and readiness to welcome the next generation of theatre talent.
Based within easy reach of NYT’s North London HQ, LFPS provided an extensive lighting, power and audio package to ensure the event’s success. LFPS managing director Rob Myer is a former member of National Youth Theatre, and other NYT alumni in attendance at the gala dinner included Rege Jean-Page and Robert Rinder, as well as patrons Rosamund Pike and the Earl of Wessex.
LFPS’ involvement in Nostalgic Fantastic was on a not-for-profit basis, with the goal of supporting a vital piece of the UK’s cultural infrastructure. Beyond the supply of equipment, LFPS also provided a team of experienced technicians. They supported the NYT’s technical members in installing and operating the lighting and audio systems, giving them a valuable opportunity to get hands-on with a range of cutting-edge equipment.
To allow guests to explore the NYT’s renovated spaces, the Nostalgic Fantastic was staged as a piece of promenade theatre. The audience were drawn through the building on their journey to the gala dinner, in the NYT’s largest r

France - Twelve APG MC2C compact satellite loudspeakers are providing maximum intelligibility in the humid and challenging environment of the busy Centre aquatique Auréo in Bayeux.
Opened in 2019, Auréo is an aquatic centre combining multiple swimming pools with a 515sq.m ‘wellness area’ featuring saunas, a jacuzzi, a salt cave and a balneotherapy pool. The 2,300m², €12.6m complex is the only municipal swimming pool serving the nearly 15,000 residents of the district after the previous piscine de Bayeux closed a year earlier.
When it came time to upgrade the aquatic centre’s AV system, the previous installation having not lived up to expectations, the town of Bayeux selected local system integrator Music Light, a long-term partner of both Bayeux and APG. “We have already equipped various locations in Bayeux with APG, so our client had references and was already familiar with the quality of the products proposed,” comments Gaëtan Potier, Music Light’s managing director.
After conducting an acoustic and technical study, Music Light specified a total of 12 column-shaped install dedicated APG MC2C speakers for Auréo, which are installed across three zones: four loudspeakers in the leisure pool, six in the sports pool, and two in the wellness area.
Music Light has worked with APG since 2010 (it was “love at first sight for my ears”, jokes Potier) and the company was able to draw on past experience to tackle the most challenging aspect of the Auréo install: the high ambient temperature and humidity presented by an indoor swi

Spain - Barcelona’s fringe theatre Teatre Akadèmia has recently completed a multimedia upgrade to enhance the venue’s technical production capabilities.
Alongside new video and lighting systems, a comprehensive Amate Audio sound installation - comprising loudspeakers, power amplifiers and digital audio processors from the company - has provided the venue with both a new FOH PA and surround sound EFX capabilities.
Award winning theatre sound designer Roc Mateu and Amate Audio’s industrial designer Guiu Llusá worked together to address the theatre’s specific sound design challenges; in particular with respect to the design of the venue, incorporating a ‘thrust stage’ with raked seating on three sides. “The sound design objectives were those required to provide a room with the distinct layout of the Teatre Akadèmia,” says Llusá, “With sound equipment of an appropriate scale, with comparable performance capabilities to that used in large scale auditoria.”
The resultant sound design is effectively two discrete systems, operating together within a matrix sound design; one the FoH dialogue PA, comprising larger full-range cabinets, and the other a wider ‘boundary’ installation, sited around the perimeter of and firing into the room, comprising smaller cabinets providing a dynamic surround sound EFX capability.
N12P and S6P models from Amate Audio’s Nítid series of compact, high-performance, dedicated venue installation loudspeaker systems were selected; two-way designs of relative scale, engineered to provide a common