UK - Leeds Castle in Kent recently played host to the spectacular open-air Leeds Castle Classical Summer Concert in celebration of its 900-year milestone. This gave around 11,000 concert-goers the opportunity to witness the world premiere of the fanfare, A Tribute to Leeds Castle, composed by Tom Hodge, performed by the Band of the Royal Marines and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and conducted by John Rigby.
Set in this picturesque location, with its natural amphitheatre and the castle as the backdrop, the visitor experience of this setting was augmented by the clarity, and even distribution of the sound, delivered by the Martin Audio Wavefront Precision Longbow (WPL). This was supplied, optimised and controlled by RG Jones Sound Engineering.
Working for conce

Belgium - Filipe Dos Santos, director of photography at RTL Belgium, called on the high-performance features of the VL2600 Spot luminaire from Vari-Lite in his design for Belgium’s annual charity television broadcast, Télévie.
Produced by RTL-TVI, Télévie raises funds to help fight cancer and leukaemia in adults and children, so the creation of vibrant, sumptuous television images which both enhance the on-stage entertainment and engage the audience to the full is a key requirement.
With its wide and deep studio stage hosting a broad range of live entertainment, the show makes serious demands on lighting. It requires lighting capable of filling the space with a quality of light, a variety of looks and effects, and the textural depth needed to create beautiful television pictures for various acts, over a long period.
“A television production

South Africa - Fanie Pieterse of CPS Audio recently acquired an Audix Studio Elite set of microphones which he has used on a variety of events including Classics is Groot 2019, Rand Merchant Bank Sales Conference, FNB Starlight Pops Opera and Band for Bricks.
Already owning a D4 and ADX60, Fanie’s new Audix Studio Elite set, supplied by DWR Distribution, includes D6, i5, D2, D4, SCX1 and SCX25A models.
“I have used Audix Microphones for the better part of a decade now and have fallen head over heels,” explains Pieterse. “The D-series, in my opinion, is the most versatile and natural sounding microphone that I have ever used on a drum kit. The D6 is my staple kick drum microphone with its thunderous low end and punch that can’t be matched. The ADX60 has really impressed me over the past few months. The D2 and D4 have proven to be the most impressive and consis

UK - Harrogate’s spa heritage is being celebrated with a light display in the town’s Valley Gardens.
As Harrogate prepares for the arrival of the UCI Road World Cycling Championships, a new illuminated sculpture has been unveiled in the gardens. And, two weeks later, 36 wells within the park - together with the imposing Harlow Hill water tower - will be lit with light shafts to complete a 3D art installation, which will be seen in the night sky for miles around.
Called Harrogate 1571, the work has been commissioned by Harrogate Borough Council as part of a wrap-around cultural programme for the UCI World Cycling Championships.
Whilst over 100 wells are set within Harrogate, Bogs Field in the Valley Gardens is the source of 36 mineral springs. The waters are Magmatic or Plutonic in origin, and never existed as rain, flowing deep beneath the earth for

USA - Luke Bryan’s Sunset Repeat tour started on 31 May and continues in to the autumn. Contributing to the good time atmosphere on stage, as Bryan and company move exuberantly through their 23-song set, is a 28-universe Justin Kitchenman-designed video and lightshow that features Chauvet Professional Maverick and ÉPIX fixtures supplied by Elite Multimedia of Nashville.
Displaying the free-flowing energy of a beach party where everyone is invited, Bryan’s performance gleefully pulls in a diverse mix of music that includes his popular country hits like Sunrise, Sunburn, Sunset (from which the tour got its name), as well as renditions of crowd-pleasers like Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer.
A large vertical video wall over the set, flanked by two equally impressive square walls, creates an evocative environment on stage by displaying a wide ran
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India - In August, Grammy and Oscar winner A.R. Rahman staged a concert in his home city of Chennai, relying on Mumbai’s Sound to supply and support the live audio system for the show, which this year was built around Adamson Systems Engineering’s E-Series.
“A.R. Rahman has been a client of Sound.com for the past eight years,” begins Sound.com founder and managing director Warren D’souza. “When we completely replaced all of our tour sound products with Adamson systems earlier this year, we knew we could offer the best possible solution to our high-end clients like Mr. Rahman. This was our first major outing with our new inventory and I think it proved beyond doubt that we made a wise investment.”
The system deployed at the YMCA College of Physical Education grounds for the show included main left and right arrays of 15 E15 three-way, true line source encl

UK - The official opening of Samsung KX, Samsung Electronics Co’s new ‘digital playground’ in London’s King’s Cross, featured ‘the world's first vertical gig’.
The multi-tiered performance space in Coal Drops Yard was erected as part of the launch of Samsung’s new multi-sensory experience and saw performances from R&B artist Mabel.
The concept was devised by Iris Experience’s creative director Henry Scotland, and realised with support from video rental house Universal Pixels.
The structure itself was fabricated by Star Live using three shipping containers to create a 9:16 format. The finished stage was an impressive 9.1m tall, showing three stories of tech and performance space to the 2,000-capacity crowd. UP provided the vertical 4.5m wide by 7.5m high portrait Leyard CLM6 LED screen with a custom rigging solution and a disguise GX2 media
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Switzerland - Cast Swiss Light Consulting, an Elation partner in Switzerland since 2015, has recently become the exclusive distributor for the lighting brand in the country.
With the new partnership, Cast expands its professional portfolio to include Elation’s complete range of innovative lighting products, allowing the company to offer its customers more complete solutions.
“As one of the bigger lighting companies in the industry, Elation is a fast-growing brand in Europe with a reputation for high quality and top level service,” comments Cast CEO Silvio Cibien. “This is exactly what we look for in a partner, a company that strives to be the best. We delight in demonstrating to customers the added value of investing in Elation products. The product range is very extensive with solutions to fit all sizes of projects and all types of demand.”
Sales and m

India - 7thSense Design and Medialon have appointed Image Engineering as a distributor for 7thSense’s range of products including Delta Media Server and Juggler, the pixel processor, as well as the suite of Medialon show control solutions.
Founded in Mumbai in 1989, Image Engineering provides a wide range of AV services and solutions for applications including cinemas, post-production and recording studio installations, theme parks, attractions and museums.
“We are excited to add 7thSense and Medialon to our portfolio of professional technology brands for India,” comments Nainesh Vora, founder and owner of Image Engineering. “Our network of global partners and manufacturers work with us to offer exceptional, premium technology solutions for attraction, digital cinema, theme park and immersive installations - we are very much looking forward to bringing 7thSens

UK - During the PLASA Show, L-Acoustics founder and president Dr Christian Heil was announced as the winner of the 2019 Gottelier Award, as voted for by his peers. Named in memory of Tony Gottelier, the renowned industry innovator and commentator, this annual award recognises product developers who have made significant long-term contributions to the advancement of entertainment, presentation or installation technology.
Heil founded L-Acoustics in 1984, and the introduction of the V-DOSC line array system in the mid-1990s led to a fundamental shift in the live sound market, and line array systems proliferated for the next decade and a half. Still, Heil and L-Acoustics continue to refine the line array concept: the KIVA ultra-compact system came to market in 2008; the K1 system - seen as the long-awaited successor to the ground-breaking V-DOSC - debuted in 2009; the KARA modu

USA - ADJ has announced the immediate availability of its new POW-R Bar Rack USB, a power management solution designed to eliminate messy wires and extension cords. Designed for controlling the power supply to lighting and audio equipment, the compact unit is suitable for use in installations as well as at front of house and monitor mixing positions, lighting desks and in mobile entertainers’ setups.
Building on the heritage of ADJ’s popular PC-100A, a power switching unit that has been on the market for over 25 years, the new POW-R Bar Rack USB retains the original tried and tested design but with the addition of dedicated Always On sockets as well as USB charging ports. The new unit expands the ADJ POW-R Bar range which also includes the touring grade POW-R BAR65 utility power block and POW-R BAR LINK linkable power block.
The new addition features eight three-pr

USA - A new training programme designed to teach stage technicians the safest way to operate telescopic and front-loading lifters has been introduced at WFX 2019 in Orlando by Spanish company Equipson, which manufactures WorkPro lifters.
Equipson has produced a series of 15 videos, voiced in English and Spanish, that demonstrate how safety issues can easily be avoided by following the correct procedures. These videos, which range in length from three to 10 minutes, cover topics such as setting up, elevating, mounting and descending telescopic and front loading lifters, how to safely move a telescopic lifter, how to mount a line array on a front loading lifer and how WireDrive works as well as how to rectify wire mistakes.
Juan Jose Vila, CSO of Equipson, says: "As manufacturers of these products we are committed to making them as safe and accessible as possible to all

UK - Les Miserables: The Staged Concert is playing packed houses at London's Gielgud Theatre, with Unusual Rigging supplying the rigging and automation for the shows' four month stint.
The concert version of the world's longest running musical opened at the end of July, following the closure of the Queen's Theatre. It will re-open after extensive refurbishment of both its backstage and auditorium as the renamed Sondheim Theatre. Unusual Rigging is also a part of this project, lowering the stage and installing a complex engineering system.
With the production team of this limited run show briefed to make the Gielgud feel like a miniature version of the 02 Arena which hosted the 25th anniversary concert, production manager Chris Boone brought Unusual on board to make it happen.
Chris explained: "Unusual Rigging is my go-to company for rigging jobs and this

Belgium - The word ‘individual’ comes up often when Martin Thomas talks about lighting his long-time client Alan Parsons. It isn’t necessarily Parsons himself that the Tucson, Arizona-based LD is referring to, but each of the musicians that make up the pioneering Grammy winner’s band.
“The music of The Alan Parsons Project has always been founded on a variety of musicians based on their individual strong suits - and the live show is no different,” said Thomas. “All members have specific harmony parts in the music; and lead vocals shift throughout the show. Because everyone sings, key light and backlight for all musicians is critical. So, layers and atmospheric architecture make up most of the production with several negative space moments in the performance.”
At the last stop of the band’s European tour at the iAncienne Belgique in downtown Brussels

Australia - After a first sold-out season at the Roslyn Packer Theatre, Muriel’s Wedding has returned with a Melbourne run finished and Sydney currently packing in the audiences. Next stop is Brisbane for the production that has grown and changed a little since the 2017 premiere.
JPJ Audio are supplying the audio equipment with Michael Waters once again in charge of the sound design. Michael won the 2018 Helpmann Best Sound Design for the original production of Muriel’s Wedding.
“Conceptually it’s similar but in terms of delivering the audio, it’s quite different,” Michael clarified. “We have a Clair PA and I believe it is the first time in the world that a Clair Cohesion CO-8 system has been used for theatre.”
The CO-8's diminutive size allows for a high degree of flexibility when integrating into virtually any application. Sydney

UK - The Den is a new pop-up theatre that forms a key part of the Royal Exchange theatre’s local exchange programme. Funded by a generous £1m gift from the Oglesby Charitable Trust, this inventive performance space was designed by the award-winning architectural studio, Haworth Tompkins as an informal space-within-a-space for residents to make and share theatre and to see work from the Royal Exchange.
Pro audio specialists, Autograph Sales & Installations, provided key elements of the sound reinforcement equipment for the new space including seven EX10 compact, full range active loudspeaker systems from KV2 Audio, and an Allen & Heath Qu-16 rack-mountable digital mixer.
Sorcha Steele, head of sound at the Royal Exchange, was responsible for designing the audio system for The Den, a task she found slightly daunting given the scope of requirements for the spac

UK - Elation Professional’s Artiste Monet LED Profile luminaire won a PLASA Award for Innovation at PLASA 2019. Recognised as exceptional innovation at a ceremony held 16 September in London, the judges singled out the Monet’s wireless continuous-rotation framing and SpectraColor colour mixing systems.
“We are both honoured and proud to have won our fifth PLASA Award for Innovation yesterday for the fabulous Artiste Monet,” enthused Elation sales & marketing director Eric Loader. “The Artiste series is breaking new ground with innovation that opens up for greater creative possibilities. Lighting professionals on both the production and installation side are discovering how exceptional the series is and the Monet is a great example. We are thrilled to again be recognised as an R&D leader and innovator in entertainment lighting.”
The 45,000-lumen Arti

Poland - Elation Professional has announced that specialty stage technology company Przedsiebiorstwo Specjalistyczne TEATR has been named the new distributor for Elation products in Poland. Based near Warsaw in the town of Piaseczno, TEATR is one of Poland’s oldest and most respected entertainment technology companies.
“We’re excited to be partnering with such an experienced company in one of Europe’s fast developing and important growth markets,” states Marc Librecht, head of sales and marketing for Elation in Europe. “The Polish market is distinct and offers unique opportunities. Our cooperation with TEATR will be a key step in expanding the Elation brand there and we look forward to working closely with their team.”
TEATR has been involved in the implementation of state-of-the-art stage technology solutions for many of Poland’s top theatres, concert

UK - Inspired by the launch of its new PLASA Innovation Award-winning Esprite moving light with fully replaceable LED engine and a host of other features and the Back to The Future movie franchise, Robe presented the first in a new trilogy of expo live performance concepts at the PLASA 2019 expo in London.
The show #ReturnToTheFuture was created to highlight Robe’s newest technologies in the context for which they were designed.
With an original DeLorean MMC12 as the set centrepiece, six dancers – and around 200 Robe lights - including Esprites, Tetras, T1s, SilverScans, MegaPointes, Spiiders, Tarrantulas and LEDBeam 150s – rigged in the roof and all around the sides of the booth, plus stunning special effects and a pool of water containing Robe IP rated iPointes - the eight-minute 428-cue (that’s one every 1.12 seconds) show was performed to a sp

UK - The PLASA Awards for Innovation, organised in collaboration with LSi magazine, took place at the end of a vibrant Monday at the PLASA Show 2019. The Awards recognise and reward pioneering product designs and the people behind them and are widely respected as they are independently judged by a team of industry experts with a variety of specialist backgrounds.
This year saw 36 entries for the Awards, with the judges selecting seven winners and one Gold Award winner.

The winners, along with the judges comments, are:
Nexo for the P12 Point-source loudspeaker
“This is the ‘loudspeaker version of a source 4’ having interchangeable horns with tool-less interchangeability.”
Robe for Esprite
“This advances technical practice by increasing the potential lifespan of LED fixtures, hopefully

USA - Bandit Lites once again provided the lighting package for the fourth annual 2019 Black Music Honorus, where Xscape, Freddie Jackson, Arrested Development, Tamia and Yolanda Adams were honoured for their contributions to African American culture and American music.
Held on 5 September at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre and produced by Central City Productions, the television special was hosted by Rickey Smiley and LeToya Luckett and featured performances by Jagged Edge, Jekalyn Carr, Tevin Campbell, Kelly Price, Naughty By Nature, Le'Andria Johnson, Tony Terry, Travis Greene, 702, Smokie Norful, Jade Novah, Dee1, June's Diary, Mali Music, Mumu Fresh, Major, Keke Wyatt, Jessie Woo, Leon Timbo and Avery Wilson.
Veteran lighting designer Mark Carver illuminated the two-hour affair and utilised the gear to provide a stylised, contemporary look.
Bandit

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