Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

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UK - The bi-annual Classical Spectacular, held for six performances in London’s Royal Albert Hall in November, featured the first Claypaky Xtylos used in the UK. The Xtylos is the first moving head with a laser light source.
The Classical Spectacular debuted in October 1988 and has been marked by perennial extravaganzas - lasers, lighting effects, fireworks - accompanying a classical music repertoire.
Lighting designer Durham Marenghi joined the Classical Spectacular family 30 years ago in an era before there were moving lights. But Marenghi quickly began to introduce lighting innovations, including many lighting fixtures used in rock ’n roll but new to the concert hall. He designs a new architecture for the lighting rig every two or three years

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Big Issues - Industry bodies have highlighted the biggest issues for the arts following the general election result – with Equity stating it is “extremely concerned” about the impact of Brexit.
Following the Conservative win in last week’s general election, organisations, also including the Creative Industries Federation, UK Theatre, Incorporated Society of Musicians and the Back for the Future Campaign, have outlined their priorities for the creative industries.
Equity general secretary Christine Payne said: “As the largest union in the creative sector, representing more than 48,000 professionals, we strongly encourage the government to take up the offer we make today of expert guidance on matters that are crucial for the future health of the UK’s creative industries.
“Equity remains extremely concerned about the impact Brexit will have on our memb

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USA - Symetrix has announced the promotion of Tylene ‘Ty’ Robinson to international sales & operations manager.
Robinson began her career in web design and digital marketing, graduating from the University of Advancing Technology with a BA in Digital Media (summa cum laude). She made her way up the corporate ladder at a fast-paced Seattle software company where she discovered a passion for project management and business operations.
After joining Symetrix, Robinson’s focus on managing order and fulfillment processes while getting to know the key players in the global sales channel became a strategic objective. In her new role, she will direct strategic accounts and an international salesforce as well as driving global sales enablement programs and managing critical sales KPIs.
“Symetrix is growing fast and expanding Ty’s role formally into internat
Doughty - Banner - from 4 July 2025

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Germany - d&b audiotechnik has announced the availability of two new software enabling technologies: CPL for SL-Series (coupling), and Temperature Humidity Control (THC) realtime high frequency compensation for loudspeaker arrays.
The CPL for SL-Series technology allows the extraordinary d&b SL-Series line arrays to be easily adjusted for specific venues. THC provides high frequency compensation due to temp/humidity as part of the d&b ArrayProcessing software: fluctuations in both temp/humidity can now be addressed in real time via the R1 Remote Control software - simplifying control and saving time. These software updates are available now.
“Visiting many SL-Series installation sites and working with the users and tech teams in the field, we realized that there was still room to improve the system workflow,” says Werner ‘Vier’ Bayer, d&b produc

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UK - Arena Birmingham has offered audio description to its visitors for the first time at Marvel Universe LIVE!.
Following a request from a customer whose sons are visually impaired, Arena Birmingham partnered with VocalEyes to offer audio description of the action-packed show. The describers, who saw an earlier performance of the show and prepared a script, were able to offer the real-time description via headsets, making the show more accessible to those with all levels of visual impairment.
The describer’s audio is broadcast using a digital radio system, ensuring a good quality reception with a range of between 50-100m.
Claire Eccles, who wrote in to the Arena to request audio description, says: “It meant so much to my family that we were able to enjoy Marvel Universe LIVE! with audio description. My sons are both severely visually impaired and lo

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UK - Pearce Hire was selected by the Royal Variety Charity as the sole contractor for the Royal Variety Performance post-show party.
With the show taking place at the London Palladium, the after-party took place at the Intercontinental Hotel Park Lane where Pearce Hire’s project manager Jake Vernum and the Pearce Hire team were loading in a full production package including lighting, sound, AV and cameras.
Giles Cooper of Giles Cooper Entertainment is the chairman of the Royal Variety Charity, and executive producer of the Royal Variety Performance and has been in this post for the past 14 years. He states: “My working relationship with Pearce Hire is long-standing as they are our main power and lighting suppliers on a year-on-year basis for many outdoor summer events run by my own company GCE LIVE, and so I know the Pearce Hire team to be amongst the best in the

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USA - Robert Morris University is a private institution tucked into the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that instructs close to 5,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Although a relative latecomer to the scene, RMU’s men’s and women’s Colonials sports teams have made up for lost time, winning 45 league championships since joining the NCAA Division I in 1976.
In support of its successful athletic programmes, RMU raised private funds to construct the new UPMC Events Centre, which includes the Peoples Court, a 4,000-seat arena for men’s and women’s basketball and women’s volleyball, an auxiliary gym, and other event and conference spaces. Local AV integration firm Horizon Information Services worked with the architect to design and install a highly-efficient, and thus value-engineered, sound reinforcement system that uses Danley Sound Labs’ patented point-

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USA - Like many passengers on the flight from Nashville to New York, Landon Bloss donned headphones soon after take off. He wasn’t listening purely for pleasure though. Instead, he was taking a crash course in the music of Billy Currington.
“I was on a load out when I received a call from Gene Jung, Billy’s PM, saying that they needed a LD to fly out the next day to start running his show immediately,” recalls Bloss. “They booked me a flight and off I went. Of course, I knew Billy’s music, but I really wanted to get deep into it, so on went my headphones.”
Bloss proved to be a quick study. Taking over the rig originally designed by Ian Saunders, he supported Currington’s 90-minute set on the star’s Stay Up Til Sun tour with an intense, fast-moving lightshow that showered a rainbow of colours on the stage. Helping him in this endeavour was a co
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Germany - Fans of Seeed have had to wait a long time for a new record and tour from the 11-piece Berlin-based dancehall and reggae ensemble. In fact, almost a year was spent even before the completion of this disc in the preparation. The design collective HELL, based around Nik Evers, Timo Martens and Philip Hillers, took care of the lighting, stage and content design for the tour, in support of the current album, BAM BAM.
"One year of preparation sounds like a long time ago," states Nik Evers, but this is put into perspective very quickly when considering the complexity of the design process, which included an intense rethink at different stages along the way. Timo Martens also explains the idea behind it. “A Seeed concert is very special in its own way,” he says. “The show's central elements in the stage design were two oversized box towers, with the band rise

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Hungary - A plethora of Ayrton lighting fixtures provided striking visual impact on the popular televised music contest, SztárbanSztár Leszek (In the Star, I’ll be the Star), on Hungary’s Tv2 television channel last month.
Lighting designer, Balázs Varga, chose Ayrton Khamsin-TC, MagicBlade-R and MagicDot-XT to delineate the complex outlines of the stage for this visual extravaganza. Balázs Varga was assisted by Bálint Marafkó, CEO and Chief LD at television and film lighting specialists, Two Men’s Show, which provided the fixtures, which were supplied by Gábor Kele, executive director of Lisys-Project, Ayrton’s exclusive distributor for Hungary.
Twenty-four MagicBlade-R fixtures were rigged on upstage trusses to outline the stylised shape of the performance area and provide a ‘top shutter’ for the cameras, with MagicBlade-R’s svelte

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Canada - Equipson’s Work Pro LS-Node RDM/DMX streaming device played a key role in ensuring the success of URA: A Celebration of Water, a multimedia experience installed along a one-kilometre stretch of coastline in Québec, Canada.
Designed by cadabra, the creative division of AV integration company XYZ Cultural Technology, URA is open throughout the summer and operates in both daylight and evening hours in Chandler, a place where the sea is both symbolically and economically important.
URA visitors are transported into a timeless maritime universe where they experience storms, shipwrecks, equinox high tides and even life at the bottom of the ocean with a chance to meet a host of sea creatures including a black whale. Guided by the voice of Lamia, a fantastical being descended from Basque legend, visitors spend an hour walking through eight storytelling stati

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Australia - Following the successful integration of the largest TiMax TrackerD4 system to date into the TiMax SoundHub-driven spatial audio reinforcement system of The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo (see LSi December 2019 for more on this), the sound and logistical teams behind the event have also introduced its stage-tracking capabilities during its recent events in Sydney.
Staged in the ANZ Olympic Stadium, the four ‘super-sized’ shows performed to a Sydney audience which featured over 1500 international performers. The event was scaled up at every level to accommodate a smaller number of shows in a much larger arena.
The ANZ stadium presented a big step up for the team behind the Tattoo and therefor

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UK - Green Hippo’s Hippotizer media servers were behind an ambitious and hauntingly atmospheric son et lumière event to celebrate Halloween in the historic city of York. Staged over three nights in two of the city’s picturesque locations - Castle Museum and Library Square - the project was the result of a collaboration between York BID (Business Improvement District) and Polestar Productions.
The event employed Karst+ Media Servers from Green Hippo and Epson 1755 projectors, supplied by Stage Sound Services and operated by Steve Jackson of InFocusAV, to deliver the spooky media creations designed by Polestar Productions. The challenges of the project will be familiar to many. “Outdoors, in the UK, at the end of October!” summarised Jackson, adding, “On top of that, the limited setup and programming time was an additional pressure.”
Despite the inherent dif

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UK - Audiotonix has reached an agreement for a next-stage investment from private investment house, Ardian.
James Gordon, Audiotonix CEO, comments, “This is an outstanding opportunity to partner with Ardian to enable further growth, and it represents a significant step in the future development of Audiotonix. We have built an incredible infrastructure within the group in the past five years, which has clearly benefited all our brands with manufacturing know-how, developing new technologies, and growing their worldwide reach. Ardian’s financial support and advice, combined with Astorg’s, who are also remaining as an investor for this next phase, will help expand our brands and product portfolio even further.”
Olivier Personnaz, managing director, Ardian Buyout, comments: “How people enjoy live, televised and streamed entertainment is going through a revolutio

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UK - West London rental specialist Entec has announced the appointment of Daniel Scantlebury as its new head of sound, effective immediately.
Scantlebury, who has joined after several years with Manchester-based dbnAudile as a senior project manager, says: “It was time for a new challenge and an incredible opportunity like this does not come along very often, so I’m thrilled. I’ve always respected Entec for its approach to business as well as its impressive history, and moving south to be closer to my family was also a consideration.”
The news of Dan’s appointment coincides with another major move for the company’s sound department. A committed d&b rental house since 1995, Entec recently invested in the brand’s latest generation SL-Series with the purchase of 50 KSL line array loudspeakers - 28 KSL 8 (80° dispersion), four KSL 12 (120°) and 18 card

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Czech Republic - Over 300 sound industry professionals from 40 countries recently visited Prague for Yamaha’s annual System Designers Conference.
Immersive audio was the theme of this year’s SDC. Prague was an appropriate location, as the city’s long history of opera and classical music has seen many venues built with acoustics in mind. It was in the newest of these - the O2 universum, opened just six weeks earlier - that the conference took place.
Featuring a wide range of conference facilities and a 4,500-seat sports arena, the O2 universum staged demonstration immersive sound systems in both the largest conference room and the arena, as well as comparing them to a large format Nexo L-R line array system flown in the arena.
SDC 2019 featured a wide range of different presentations and demonstrations. These included the Prague Music String Quartet demonst

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Spain - In a move to a more sustainable future, the Teatro Calderón has chosen to upgrade its lighting systems with ETC products, supplied by the company’s dealer in Spain, Stonex.
Based in Valladolid, the Teatro Calderón has long been recognised as one of the best theatres in the country. It was decided that over the next few years the theatre will renew its lighting equipment in order to allow both LED and conventional luminaires to work together as effectively as possible. In order to do this, the Calderón chose ETC’s power control and entertainment consoles.
ETC’s Sensor3 power control system and ThruPower modules were installed into the theatre, replacing a Smartrack model which was in place for the previous 20 years. The Teatro Calderón now has five Sensor3 ESR3AFN-48 power control racks, filled with ETR15AFR and ETR25AFR ThruPower modules, in addition

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UK - White Light and ELP Broadcast & Events (ELP B&E) have announced a strategic partnership.
ELP B&E will continue the full service broadcast and events wet hire business it currently operates. The partnership commences on 6 January 2020 and reverses the position announced in November 2019 of the cessation of ELP B&E at the end of 2019. It will pave the way for the acquisition of ELP’s lighting rental business by WL during 2020.
ELP B&E staff and premises in Manchester will be retained, along with the equipment stock. Additional staff, equipment and operational resources will be added from within the WL organisation, bolstering ELP B&E’s strength and ability to meet client needs. During the early months, fulfilment and despatch will continue from ELP’s base at Cardington Studios with a transfer to WL’s Wimbledon premises taking place la

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Italy - RCF Group has completed the acquisition of professional sound systems manufacturer Montarbo.
From an operational standpoint, the brand’s running and distribution will be overseen by AEB Industriale.
A statement from RCF says: “The incorporation of Montarbo into the group further expands our product range in a market segment that is demonstrating strong growth. The acquisition perfectly fits RCF Group’s strategy of selective M&A activity focussing on iconic brands that leveraging the Group’s competitive positioning, together with its technical and commercial expertise, fully exploit the growth potential contributing to the Group’s progress and value creation.”
Arturo Vicari, CEO of RCF Group, comments: “We’re delighted to welcome Montarbo to our Group. It’s a historic brand that has contributed to the evolution of the music and profe

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USA - In a joint display with ETC, High End Systems (HES) enjoyed record success at the recent LDI exhibition in Las Vegas. HES showed a variety of new products in the 200+ fixture rig, including the SolaHyBeam 3000, TurboRay and SolaPix automated luminaires.
High End Systems’ TurboRay won PLSN’s Gold Star Award for Best LED Wash Light. The fixture has already seen high profile use in many concerts, television and other live events. Automated lighting product manager Matt Stoner commented, "We are so happy that the TurboRay has been acknowledged as the ‘Best LED Wash’ by PLSN this year. It is especially gratifying that the wash capabilities of the TurboRay are recognized among its huge variety of other specialties, like its complex aerials and marvellous face look. It just affirms what lighting designers have been telling us all along, TurboRay is ‘much more than a

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The Netherlands - Prolyte has announced the appointment of Fons van Teijn as CEO, effective 12 December 2019.
“Fons’ connections in the industry, hard work and experience will lead Prolyte to greatness in no time,” comments Frantisek Zykan, CEO of Area Four Industries, which recently acquired the Prolyte brand.
Van Teijn has a 34-year career in the professional photographic scene. He started as a sales manager at Capi-Lux-Vak, a then photography store which has since started offering a full assortment of electronics and today has branches in 40 airports across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa. In 2000, he established Provak Photo Film Video BV, a wholesaler of photographic, film and video equipment, which operated as a sole company until its acquisition by Manfrotto in 2016. Van Teijn then stayed onboard the newly-formed Manfrotto Distribution Benelux BV
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