UK - Apt-GB, the creators of the >teleprompter.video comfort monitor, has announced a major product giveaway running until 5pm on 28 February.
Apt-GB’s comfort monitors have travelled around the world with UB40 during their 40th Anniversary Tour. The band found them to be “an invaluable addition to their touring kit”.
Artist managements, tour mangers and hire companies with European or global tours with major artists during 2020 are invited to apply.
Says the company: “If you’ve seen or heard about >teleprompter.video and you’re intrigued, Apt-GB are giving your band the opportunity to take up to four comfort monitors on the road with them - they will even engrave your logo on the back!
“If that sounds like you, or just would like t

USA - In 2019, Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola made the decision to upgrade the stage and house lighting systems in the main sanctuary – a significant undertaking that meant replacing over 600 lighting fixtures.
“We decided to replace every tungsten light that illuminated in the room with an LED fixture,” says Bobby Taylor, tech director and director of communications at Olive Baptist Church, “and for the stage lighting project chose a full complement of Elation LED fixtures.”
Olive Baptist Church was founded over 125 years ago and has grown into one of the largest Baptist churches in America. Under the leadership of Dr Ted Traylor, Olive Baptist is an active and growing ministry with a large worship space designed to hold about 4,000 people. In any given week, the sanctuary may host anything from weekly services, weddings, or funerals to full concerts and

Belgium - Although Ghent is famed for its medieval church spires, quaint market squares and its week-long summer city festival, for the students and academics who make up roughly one fifth of the city’s population, one event in particular stands out on the calendar: the Ghent University students union annual party for returning and new students.
This year’s party, which took place within the art nouveau surroundings of the city’s Vooruit Hall. To provide memorable looks for the event, Grizzlysound supplied VéDéLighting with 20 Chauvet DJ Intimidator Hybrid 140SR and 12 Chauvet DJ Intimidator Wash Zoom 450 IRC fixtures. Together, these fixtures formed the foundation of their EDM infused lighting concept.
With the expectant students eager to see both exciting and fresh visuals for the most hyped event of the year, which saw a number of DJs take to the stage to

South Africa - DWR Distribution is hosting a workshop with Roland Greil, lighting designer, director and programmer for artists such as Rammstein, The Rolling Stones, Phil Collins, Adele and Spandau Ballett.
The event takes place on 18 February at the Mosaïek Teatro in Fairlands, Johannesburg, with Greil sharing the stage with local lighting designer Joshua Cutts.
The workshop will concentrate on lighting design for concert touring. “We will look at a few recent and past projects with a particular emphasis on the Rammstein production which I have worked on since 2019. I look forward to sharing an insightful view of the creation process as well as efficiently getting from the first sketches to the final show.”
Duncan Riley of DWR Distribution comments: “This is a wonderful opportunity for South Africans to learn from one of the top lighting designers in t

The Netherlands - SKALAR - the large scale immersive kinetic lighting and electronic music art installation created by light artist / designer Christopher Bauder and composer / music producer Kangding Ray - has been reimagined for Amsterdam’s The Gashouder, a circular space where the work is being presented by Audio Obscura.
Once again, Christopher is utilising Robe Pointes as lightsources - 93 in total - in this new space. The installation which he calls SKALAR 360, also features 61 double-sided mirrors with perimeter rings of 180 addressable pixels which are suspended on 183 custom Kinetic Lights motorised winches.
In addition to the looped installation piece, Christopher and Kangding Ray are playing seven special related live performance shows in the same space.
SKALAR was first realised in the turbine hall of a former Berlin power stat

Colombia - Allen & Heath’s dLive and Qu series took centre stage at the 14th edition of the Cartagena International Music Festival, set in Cartagena de Indias, with an extensive week-long programme, which saw the mixing systems deployed for FOH, monitor and broadcast duties.
Year after year, nearly 25,000 spectators flock to the festival, which brings together the world’s greatest classical musicians. Held at various venues throughout the city, the festival also hosts a variety of exhibitions, musical masterclasses and educational programmes for young, aspiring artists.
As per previous years, the festival turned to Colombian rental company 903pro to provide audio support across several locations and found dLive and Qu to be the perfect solution to cope with the variety and volume of events and broadcasts taking place over the week.
"I've been mixing class

Europe - Area Four Industries Direct UK has issued a clarification statement in respect to the continuation of supply of Lightspace deck & truss products supplied via Impact Products (Europe) Ltd, who were placed into voluntary liquidation procedures at the end of last year.
“Contrary to recent reports, these products have not been discontinued,” says Area Four in a statement. “Milos, which is part of Area Four Industries, has exclusively manufactured Impact OEM brands Spacedeck and Lightspace for the past five years from their production facilities in the Czech Republic.
“Area Four Industries UK owns the rights to Spacedeck and Lightspace products and will continue to provide full sales and technical support from their design and distribution centre in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. All truss & staging stocks have now been transferred from Northampton to Wi

USA - Michael Abbott, audio coordinator for the Grammy Awards, specified 12 Austrian Audio OC818 microphones to be used as overhead microphones on the artist drum kits during the 62nd annual Grammy Awards, which was broadcast live from Staples Centre in Los Angeles on 26 January.
“The broadcast music mix engineers came back to me after the broadcast, commenting on how the microphones provided additional tonal response and spatial coherence to the overall drum kit mix,” comments Abbott.
Hosted by Alicia Keys, the 62nd Awards featured live performances – including Old Town Road All-Stars, which featured nominees Billy Ray Cyrus and Lil Nas X, who were joined by BTS, Diplo, Mason Ramsey, and Nas.
Other artists performing on the night included first-time nominees and break-out stars Billie Eilish and Lizzo, as well as Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani.
“We
featured content

ETC Halcyon Silent

High End Systems Halcyon Silent builds on ETC’s legacy of fanless automated fixtures by incorporating features from the highly sought-after Halcyon family. Halcyon Silent perfectly balances silent operation with brilliant output of 18,400 lumens and high-impact features. 

For more information visit us at www.etcconnect.com

Denmark - At the beginning of 2019, full-service Danish rental company Nordic Rentals experienced a growing demand from the concert touring and broadcast markets. As a result, the company opted to increase its mixing console inventory. Already a long-standing DiGiCo user having invested in the original D5 Live, D1 and, more recently, SD8s and SD9s, Nordic Rentals took the decision to add more of the manufacturer’s products to its stock.
“Our work in both touring and television has increased dramatically, but we were also seeing a growing demand from international artists doing fly-in shows on festivals in Denmark and Norway,” explains Martin Nørbæk, Nordic Rentals’ senior sales & project manager. “As we operate on an international level, and part of our strategic plan is to be the leader in our business in Denmark and Norway in regards to service, support an

Austria - From February, Windows 10 will be used for the entire Pixera server product line, AV Stumpfl has announced.
In addition to the latest security updates, servers with Windows 10 will also be delivered with many pre-installed tools and drivers. The engine GUI will also be replaced by Pixera Hub, a new toolset that will offer additional features, such as Autostart Manager and Pixera Version Selector.
"With our new and customised Windows 10 systems, we are choosing a technological path that will not only provide our customers with future security updates, we are also offering them more freedom on their media servers in conjunction with utilities that facilitate a better workflow," says the company in a statement.
The installation of the operating system will be via a USB stick, where all necessary drivers and software packs will be included. Customers, who

Council Strategy - Arts Council England has unveiled the strategy that will guide its work over the next decade, aiming to address what it says are “momentous” sector-wide challenges that include inequality of opportunity and a widespread lack of diversity. There is particular emphasis on communities and young people in the document, published this week, which lists the Arts Council’s priorities for its work and the organisations it will fund between now and 2030.
Entitled Let’s Create, its contents are broadly similar to the draft document published by the Arts Council last year. It is based around a vision that by 2030, England will be a country “transformed by its culture” and “in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish”.
No Show - Madonna pulled out of the first London show of her Madame X tour, sp

Singapore - Generation AV, which represents Martin Audio in the APAC countries, has recruited Tony Sawyer as senior APAC applications manager. A significant addition to the team, Sawyer spent 11 years at Bosch Communications/Electro-Voice/Dynacord, and was most recently at Vue Audiotechnik in Manila.
Generation AV founder David McKinney, who has known Sawyer for 20 years, sees the appointment as a major boost to the company’s growth. “We started talks a few months ago and decided now was the right time to get him onboard,” explains McKinney.
Based in the Philippines, Sawyer’s role is to work closely with all distributors in Asia Pacific, providing project design support, training on new and existing products, supporting major touring events and carrying out product/system training across the region. He will focus on bringing Martin Audio factory training events

The Netherlands - CLF Lighting has launched CLF Poseidon, a powerful outdoor beam fixture that has been developed for smooth CMY colour mixing.
Based on the successful CLF Aorun, Poseidon comes with a fast and accurate feature set including a double prism, gobo wheel, animation section and frost. The 190mm wide lens and optics allow big mid-air effects with a bright and punchy beam, delivered by a 400W light source. Colours can be mixed smoothly by using the CMY wheels and a fixed colour wheel is also available.
The IP65-rated housing is equipped with specially designed motors enabling fast pan and tilt movements. A bright O-LED screen offers easy access to on-board settings, even in bright environments.
(Jim Evans)

The Netherlands - Italian amplifier manufacturer Powersoft will celebrate its 25th year in business at the upcoming ISE 2020.
Over the course of its history, Powersoft has been credited with a number of technological innovations and industry firsts. Just a year into its life, in 1996, the company had already mastered designing and developing the then first commercially-viable Class D amplifier, which was able to deliver consistently reliable, high-power levels. This technological breakthrough on switch mode amplification also helped the company earn a coveted reputation on green power and efficiency, making it Powersoft’s trademark to this day.
In the intervening years, the company continued to push the envelope, always conscious of making consistent, efficient, and intuitive products. This resulted in a number of new products and technologies that have since become

USA - Fans, who turned out for Anthony Hamilton’s three-date Florida swing in late December, finished 2019 with a bang. In addition to seeing the Grammy-winning R&B artist perform his hits, they got to enjoy a stellar cast of supporting artists, featuring Ja Rule, K Michelle and Joe.
Each act was supported by a punchy Josh Lawson lightshow that delivered its searing visuals with help from six Chauvet Professional Maverick MK2 Profile fixtures supplied by Apogee Productions of Longwood, Florida.
“I approached each act differently as Ja Rule is classic hard-hitting rap, Joe is a more laid-back version of R&B, and K Michelle is an artist who tells a lot of stories of her past relationships,” says Lawson. “Since the three stops made in Florida were at arenas, it gave me more stage space to play with than I have at my normal club shows. I took advantage of

USA - Wayne State College is a mid-sized public school in rural Wayne, Nebraska. The college’s theatre arts degree programme provides its students with three performance venues housed in the Lied Performing Arts Centre.
At 675 seats, the Ramsey Theatre is the largest of the three, but until recently, the quality of its sound reinforcement system was not commensurate with the quality of the programme. Local AV integration company Adams Production Services recently designed and installed a Danley Sound Labs system that delivers “vastly superior intelligibility and impact at a fraction of the former system’s size”.
“Last year, I updated the PA system in Wayne State College’s gymnasium with six Danley OS80 loudspeakers, and they loved the improvement,” explains Brian Adams, owner of Adams Production Services. “They showed me the system in the Ramsey Theatr

UK - Lighting designer James Scott specified 96 impression X4 Bar 20 battens from GLP when London-based rapper / producer AJ Tracey played two shows at Alexandra Palace recently.
The gigs were the culmination of a long year in which Scott, director of multi-disciplinary creative design studio Suluko, had been an essential part of the artist’s creative team, headed by Tawbox. AJ Tracey toured first the UK Academy circuit followed by the festival season, with a simple floor package.
Lighting inventory for the tour had been supplied by Siyan but when it came to the Ally Pally shows production manager Joel Stanley awarded the project to Neg Earth.
The creative for the show was devised by Tawbox, who designed the screen layout and the concept of AJ performing in the round. “This was a specific show design for Ally Pally,” explains Scott. “The concept of the sh

UK - Music producer George Moorey likes to weave a little historical magic into his recordings, by taking his mobile setup - which now includes an Audient iD14 audio interface - into some of the ancient buildings of his adopted home. Capturing the spirit of the city in the form of samples, he showcases them in a surprising variety of genres including choral, classical, folk, hip-hop, electronica, grime and rock.
His most recent project is a prolific songwriting collaboration with fellow musician and lyricist, Shane Young, called The Powdered Earth. The first single Hold Your Breath is released on 31 January and incorporates piano samples he’s been recording all around the city.
Moorey says: “Piano is crucial to the sound of The Powdered Earth. The parts are simple and repetitive, so I record them as MIDI using

UK - Established over 60 years ago, Belfast-based Niavac has grown steadily to become one of Northern Ireland’s most successful systems integrators, covering the corporate, healthcare, hospitality and education sectors. The acquisition of audio company Loft Sound in 2016 expanded Niavac’s portfolio into the live event industry, a business which is proving every bit as successful.
The company has invested in a Yamaha Rivage PM7 digital mixing system to continue its commitment to high quality service and it has already been out on tour.
“We used Yamaha digital mixers from the beginning,” says Loft Sound’s Steve Corr, who became Niavac events manager at the time of the acquisition. “Our first mixer was an LS9 and our inventory went on to include M7CL, PM5D, all three CL series mixers and smaller analogue boards for conference work.”
He continues: “We

UK -There is limited time to secure your place at a free industry event dedicated to the changes to the off-payroll working rules (known as IR35).
Co-hosted by PLASA and the MIA, Get your business ready for IR35 is taking place this Thursday, 30 January, at the Victory Services Club in London.
The event is relevant to large business owners and freelancers / contractors alike and will see HR expert Nicky Gleadow (MD, The HR Point) explain how the changes to the IR35 legislation will impact employers and off-payroll workers. There will also be complimentary food alongside plenty of networking time with fellow professionals, says PLASA.
IR35 is a piece of UK government legislation that aims to determine whether a worker is an employee or an off-payroll contractor, ensurin

UK - White Light has supplied the lighting for You Stupid Darkness!, which recently opened at the Southwark Playhouse in London.
Presented by Paines Plough and Theatre Royal Plymouth, You Stupid Darkness! is a new play set within the Brightline Call Centre. It focusses on four colleagues who try to keep their lives together whilst the outside world falls apart.
The lighting designer on the show is Peter Small, who comments: “My brief for this production was that it shouldn’t feel ‘lit’; meaning I wanted it to feel as natural as possible to the audience. The concept was that you had sort of peeled the wall off this strange office and were peering in from a dark place, somewhat ‘fly on the wall’. This concept meant working closely with set designer Amy Jane Cook and adding in masking which would allow me to drop the rig very low and hide it away

Latest Issue. . .