France - Over the course of a three-year hiatus, the newly-renamed La Halle ô Grains theatre in Bayeux, Normandy, reopened to the public at the end of 2019 after a thorough redesign to address the latest expectations in terms of reception, accessibility, aesthetics, visibility, and comfort.
This update was undertaken in order to offer the best possible experience to spectators, and a more versatile technical palette for incoming artists and crews. The new hall now boasts a complete APG loudspeaker system installed by the ISA Group, an integrating partner of the APG network, enabling the theatre’s management to count on high-precision, high-quality acoustics.
“The specifications were drawn up around the programming and shows, 80% of which are theatrical,” comments

Germany - DRIVE.IN Concerts of Monheim has come up with a solution that allows music fans of the area to attend a live concert again.
DRIVE.IN Concerts Monheim is a series of events in which the crowd park their cars in front of the stage just like at a drive-in movie. Running through June, with a variety of live acts and DJs performing, the concert series features an impressive stage set-up that relies on Elation Professional and ADJ lighting fixtures.
The series kicked off in early May with a live performance by Cologne-based rock band Kasalla as part of their Et Jitt Car-Salla tour of drive-in concerts. Since then, most weekends have seen two or three concerts taking place at the outdoor site, featuring artists such as DJ Quicksilver, Da Hool, Moguai, TOPIC and The Disco Boys. Future performers are set to include electronic acts Fiasko and YouNotUs, as well a

USA - The Ahava Festival held its inaugural event at the Woldenberg Riverfront Park in New Orleans, Louisiana in early March. With no admission fee, attendees were encouraged to take in the sounds, sights, and tastes and, if possible, to donate to 110 hard-working local charities.
The weather was beautiful, and the event raised over $100,000. Danley Sound Labs supported the Ahava Festival with loudspeakers, subwoofers, and multi-channel amplifiers for all of its three stages.
“The whole concept behind the Ahava Festival is based on sharing love and giving to the people in New Orleans who are in need,” explained Matt Dupuy, Ahava Festival technical director. Dupuy is a system designer and installation technician at local AV integration firm Assurance AV Solutions of Mandeville, Louisiana, as well as the FOH engineer for New Orleans’ party band favourite, Groovy 7

UK - A recent prosecution at Luton Crown Court has highlighted both the human and financial cost when work at height is not properly planned and managed, the Ladder Association reports.
The court heard that on 5 September 2016, an engineer testing a sprinkler system for leaks at a site in Hemel Hempstead, fell almost 3m after the extension ladder he was using slipped away from him. The engineer fell into the gap between the internal roof and the external wall resulting in a fractured vertebrae, soft tissue damage and severe blood loss - amounting to around half of his bloodstream - and led to him requiring a blood transfusion and 14 stitches to the head.
An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that reasonably practicable measures had not been taken to prevent a fall from the internal roof for both the engineer and other contractors working on th

Spain - Occupying a downtown location just a stone’s throw from the famous Passeig de Gracia, the Khalijia Lounge & Restaurant is Barcelona’s newest nightspot with an oriental twist.
Offering everything from Lebanese and Moroccan-inspired food to exotic cocktails coupled with live music, Khalijia aims to cater for a discerning clientele that appreciates quality at every level. Barcelona-based AV systems integration specialists, Silence Electroacústica S.L., were commissioned to design and install the audio, lighting and DMX control systems throughout the new venue. Silence opted for a KV2 Audio system based on the EX Series of active loudspeakers.
From an audio perspective, the system needed to handle a wide spectrum of requirements, from extremely high quality, low level music reproduction for the lunchtime and early evening crowds going right through to high

USA - New York City may be over a thousand miles away, but local company, JEM Productions, created the look and feel of Manhattan jazz club at its warehouse- turned-studio in Wausau, WI, as it hosted a livestream fundraising show by the Sara Rifleman Trio.
The performance by the Wisconsin-based musicians was the latest in a series of livestreamed shows emanating from the lighting and audio company’s makeshift studio. It was the smoothest production to date, according to Joe Ellis, president of JEM Productions.
“We’ve been doing these for weeks now, ever since the Covid-19 shutdown started,” said Ellis. “I think we’re getting familiar with this process! Our lighting and production crew did a really great job creating the look of a classic New York jazz club on the set. Sometimes, the simpler the look, the harder you have to dig into the art of design. This

USA - Chicago-based Charles Ford and his business partner Brandon Clark from Creative Live Control have developed a professional streaming production service - lighting, audio, cameras and broadcast - that meets all the social distancing requirements, can be installed and run by the two of them.
While the challenges of producing special high impact lighting for community lighting projects like Chicago Unite at Night have been stimulating and fun, Charles and Brandon also need to generate some business as all their touring work has currently been cancelled, so they hit on the idea of the professional live streaming service.
The living room of Charles’ condo has been transformed into a pop-up studio space and after a couple of test runs, there is a queue of local artists lined up to visit and use the facilities.
Brandon completed all the networking, intern

USA - Bending Lite Productions’ Erik Mahowald has enjoyed a long tour of duty with American electronic musician and DJ Dillon Francis, noted for popularising the ‘Moombahton’ genre - a fusion of house music combined with reggaeton.
Last summer, Erik conceived a lighting design for Coachella 2019 based around 60 GLP JDC1 hybrid strobes, but with the intention of bringing it to major headline events following the reveal.
Working alongside creative content director and VJ, Mario Adato; production manager, Nathan Rebolledo and tour manager, Mike Finn, Mahowald programmed the lighting to animate a set that combined complementary surround elements with creating big moments of drama to produce a high-octane party vibe for audiences to become immersed in.
In the centre of this was Dillon Francis himself, performing from an elevated booth, housing his CDJ setup. The
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Albania - Headquartered in Tirana, ASLV (Albanian Sound, Lighting and Video) has operated nationwide since 2013 and, with its team provides sound, lighting, video, staging and structures, as well as creative technical solutions for concerts, festivals, theatre and opera productions, key corporate events, expos and more throughout the country. Specialist services also include consultation and design.
Recently appointed as exclusive Outline distributor for Albania, following its corporate policy of ensuring its clients equipment that is technically the best for perfectly meeting their requirements, ASLV has also taken delivery of an Outline Superfly Silver audio package, one of the three turnkey set-ups conceived in recent months by the Italian audio manufacturer.
Superfly loudspeaker systems have a true three-way (HF-MF-LF) design, but the dual high-efficiency 10” tra

UK - Seventy-five years after the end of the Second World War in Europe, London’s Royal Albert Hall (RAH) hosted We’ll Meet Again for VE Day 75 with Katherine Jenkins to honour those who gave their lives so that subsequent generations could come to know peace and freedom. Event production supplier, SFL provided the audio and video production for the live performance. The event was organised by TBI Media and Snappin’ Turtle Productions, both long-standing clients of SFL.
With the world overcast by the threat of the Covid-19 pandemic, the SSAFA armed forces charity and The Mayor of London joined together with the noted London venue, brought the nation together by offering an authentic musical experience.
For the first time since The Blitz, the RAH stood empty for an event, but its true life force - the audience - were able to enjoy the performance of Welsh m

UK - GoboPlus.com continues to operate in these difficult times with reduced staff numbers, but remains determined to support to its customers with a continued service of both custom and stock gobos. In recent weeks the company has seen a huge increase in gobos celebrating the NHS. Goboplus.com responded by designing a range of NHS gobos for its website and has seen this move mushroom into an online campaign which is steadily growing week by week.
“We have received orders from across the UK from many customers who have been expressing their support on Thursday nights as they #clapforcarers in celebration of the commitment and strength being made by all front-line staff,” says GoboPlus.com’s Paul de Ville. “We have been sharing these pictures on social media in the hope that the message will spread far and wide to show how proud we are of all the hard-work

Blackout Tuesday - The music industry is calling for a ‘Blackout Tuesday’ in response to George Floyd's death. Major record labels have shared a message on social media promising "a day to disconnect from work and reconnect with our community". Employees have been given Tuesday off as "a day of action", intended to "provoke accountability and change". Interscope vowed not to release new music this week, while Apple Music's Ebro Darden cancelled his radio shows.
"We stand together with the black community against all forms of racism, bigotry, and violence," said Columbia Records, which is home to Beyoncé, Pharrell Williams, Lil Nas X, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Adele. "Now, more than ever, we must use our voices to speak up and challenge the injustices all around us."
"In the words of Dr King, 'There comes a time when silence is betrayal.' When you have a res

UK - Audiologic has reappointed Diogo Scutti as application support engineer.
Scutti returns to Audiologic after spending three years as project engineer with SSE, a position that involved complete responsibility for system design alongside a focus on developing exceptional standards of interface management.
Over his 20-year career, Scutti has played a major role in both live production and systems integration in many world-famous events and locations, including the opening and closing ceremonies at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
“It is with great pleasure and delight that we welcome Diogo back into the business,” comments Ben Spurgeon, senior application engineer at Audiologic. “Diogo’s experience in large-scale projects and expansive system design will help to push our technical offering even further and we are thrilled to have him back on

USA - The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the demand for UV-C lighting products offering reliable disinfection, even from coronaviruses. ACT Lighting has announced that it is distributing UV-C lighting devices from Luxibel as well as the GSUV product range from Golden Sea.
“ACT Lighting has begun to distribute UV-C disinfecting devices from our suppliers, which are ideal for use in production environments of all types,” says Aaron Hubbard, regional sales manager at ACT Lighting. “We are delivering a myriad of products from both manufacturers geared toward the permanent installation markets as well as portable solutions ranging from smaller, consumer level applications to theatres and arenas.”
Luxibel, the professional AV lighting brand of AED group, which has its headquarters in Belgium and offices in The Netherlands, Germany, France and the UK, currently offe

USA - Just as it does at outdoor festivals, nature can work with or against the LD who lights a drive-in concert. Matt Collier got a taste of both on Saturday, 23 May when he lit a two-hour show by jam band Spafford at the Digital Drive-In outside Phoenix.
The brilliant orange sunset that filtered through the feathered clouds at the start of the show served up one of those breath-taking spectacles that happen on special evenings this time of year in the dessert. Along with this gentle touch, however, nature also showed its harsher side with some strong southwest winds.
Drawing on his extensive experience touring the festival circuit with Spafford and other bands, Collier adroitly handled whatever Mother Nature dished out, incorporating the colourful sky into his design for the drive-in show, while also coming up with a substitute for the fog he planned to use before t

Australia - Assistive living specialist Contacta has appointed Exertis ProAV Australia, part of Stampede and Exertis ProAV, to serve as its value distribution partner to drive sales of its hearing loop and speech transfer systems in Australia and New Zealand.
In announcing the appointment, Exertis ProAV Australia president & CEO Kevin Kelly credits the hard work of Exertis ProAV Australia general manager Nick Cocks in forging the new distribution agreement. “Nick’s 17 years of industry experience played a major role in reaching this agreement with Contacta, a market leader in providing assistive living solutions, and this was a top priority of the company.”
Amplifying Kelly’s point, Nick Cocks notes: “As a new player in the market with a strong global presence we want to create long term supplier partnerships as a base for our business. We select the com

UK - New guidance from PASMA is helping managers keep scaffold tower users safe during the coronavirus outbreak, whether they're off on a training course or using towers in the workplace.
The industry body has offered its advice on the challenges being faced by those responsible for the health and safety of tower users as they plan a return to work. In a new guidance document released free to the industry, PASMA delves into issues such as how long the virus lasts on aluminium, how rescue plans will be affected and how workers can avoid passing instruction manuals around.
The body shares recommend ways to assemble a tower while keeping your distance from everyone else, suggesting that the most reliable method could be buying

USA - XR Studios leveraged the latest technology from disguise to bring the future of broadcast to primetime American television when Katy Perry performed her new single Daisies on the season finale of American Idol. The project relied on the collaboration between the creative and technical teams led by XR Studios, with content by Silent Partners Studio using Notch VFX, direction by Silent House Productions and PRG North America as the production vendor.
“Started on the #AmericalIdol stage, ended up in a whole new world,” as Katy Perry wrote on her Instagram, the performance has since been watched by over 9m viewers around the globe with over 2m Youtube hits on top of the 7.3m strong viewers on the night.
“Having disguise for delivery of this content was crucial. There's simply no other solution out there that I would trust with this,” says JT Ro

USA - Harman Professional Solutions has added 10 free Live Workshops to its Learning Sessions programme in conjunction with Harman Professional University.
Scheduled through mid-June, the workshops feature lighting or audio experts who have extensive industry knowledge and experience working with various acts including Earth, Wind & Fire, Janelle Monáe, Lea Michele, Mary Mack, Rae Sremmurd, Rebelution, Sublime with Rome, Tabula Rasa Opera, Tegan and Sara, The Avalanches, Tinashe and others.
The sessions now open for registration include: Transitioning Between Studio and Live Environments with Mike Sutherland (2 June), Soundcraft Vi1000 Basic Training with Gabriel Le Roux (3 June), Headroom of a Sound System with Jan van Zyl (4 June), Soundcra

UK - As Unusual Rigging's managing director Tom Harper prepares to moderate an ABTT seminar on Sustainability in Theatres on 11 June, the company is releasing a series of short videos on its social media channels and its website to stir the debate. 
Harper is passionate about making positive change in the live production industry's ecosystem - especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and will argue the need for companies to move on from the sustainability argument and to think more circularly instead.
He says: “For years, under the sustainability model, companies have been looking at how they can do 'less bad', whereas what we really need to be doing is looking at how we can actually 'do better' and the circular economy model really captures the essence of this.<

Russia - Scena has joined the Prolyte family as the latest authorised dealer in Russia.
Founded in 2016 by specialists with more than 10 years of experience in the culture, social, and entertainment industry, Scena is recognised for its involvement in the development of European projects, brands and theatre complexes.
“When searching for a partner, Prolyte asks a couple of important questions: can they be our friends? Can they be a part of our family? Do they share the same values of loyalty, honesty, competence, and quality? When the answer to all these questions is a yes, then we jump right into that relationship,” says Eddie Slotboom.
Nikita Safonov and Alexey Barkovski already have a high level of experience with Prolyte over many years. Slotboom adds: “We are convinced that there is an experienced team at Scena with a lot of knowledge. Henry did a gre

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