South Africa - The Little Theatre, based at the University of South Africa in Pretoria, has upgraded to a grandMA3 light console as the theatre moves into its dance season, hosting various performances from ballet to contemporary.
“Although our previous console served us well, it was over nine years old,” explains technical manager Leon Rossouw. “We were having issues with updating fixture libraries and the start-up time for the console was time-consuming. Software updates were no longer rolled out as the console had been discontinued a few years back already and some of the hardware was also giving me major hassles.”
In 2010, the Little Theatre decided to focus on promoting theatres in schools and youth groups instead of being a money generating playhouse. Whil

Spain - Electronics, lights and lots of dancing meet every year at Dreambeach in Villaricos where thousands of people gather for five days to enjoy one of the biggest musical shows in the country on the Main Stage and in the Dreams Tent.
Lighting plays a leading role in electronic music events where the choice of fixtures is of paramount importance. For the last four years of Dreambeach, Eduardo Valverde from Pixelmap Studios has designed the scenarios with lighting supplied by the rental company Fluge.
In his designs, the common factor is the construction of gigantic structures that create the illusion of being a temple of music. Among Valverde’s most recent credits are the stages of Love the Tuenti’s, Love the 90s, A Summer Story, HallowANTS and Red Bull Batalla de los Gallos festivals, among others.
"In the case of the Dreams Tent at Dreambeach, the main c

UK - Italia Conti Academy is one of the world’s most recognisable names when it comes to performing arts education for secondary school and further education students.
When Triple E were approached to supply ModTruss for one of the school’s recent productions it was an opportunity to support the young performers in more ways than one.
Despite the short lead time of a month, Triple E worked with the school’s production team to provide a bespoke platform, stairs and handrails which formed a centrepiece of the stage set for the production of Life’s Just a Bowl of Conti’s for a one week run at Rhoda McGraw Theatre in Woking, Surrey.
Amy Stevenson, production and stage manager at Italia Conti Academy comments, “We pride ourselves on the teaching and the production values here at Italia Conti and we only wanted the best for our students for their s

USA - During a 20-plus-year career, Gary Allan has sold over 8m albums. With a fan base that stretches around the world, the California-native is often out on the road showcasing his vocals in a raucous live performance. Readying now for the 2019 tour across North America, production designer Ben Shockley once again worked with the Nashville-based production provider Elite Multimedia Productions to supply a versatile and memorable LED video and lighting design.
“As an artist, Gary typically tours all year long without a set schedule,” opens Shockley. “I have been with him for a little over two years now, and each year we try to bring something new. Since we will be playing a lot of the same venues each year, we have to have a fresh look to give the fans a slightly different experience each time.”
Getting started on the new production design, Shockley understood

Mexico - Doble B is the latest nightspot in the Mexican tourist centre of Cancun. Open for lunch and then dinner as a sleek restaurant, after hours the venue transforms into a nightclub with help from more than 40 of ADJ’s professional LED-powered lighting fixtures.
Attracting an up-market clientele looking for a sophisticated evening of dining, drinking and dancing, Doble B is the latest new venue to enhance Cancun’s vibrant nightlife scene. With an elegant interior design anchored by four custom-built chandeliers each featuring a myriad of tungsten-effect pixel-mapped lamps, the space features a large bar on one side and glass doors opening onto a terrace on the other.
The well-established entertainment audio and lighting equipment installer Adimsa, headed up by director general Edson Rivera, was contracted to specify and install a versatile lighting system for t

UK - AV and entertainment technology company Anna Valley is the solution architect and technology provider for the mixed-reality ‘window on the world’ feature in ITV’s Rugby World Cup 2019 studio.
The studio in Maidstone is the base from which the host broadcaster provides insight and analysis on the Rugby World Cup 2019 tournament, from the opening fixture on 20 September, through to the final on 2 November 2019.
ITV’s Rugby World Cup 2019 studio combines live-action, augmented reality and mixed reality to provide a dynamic and engaging studio environment and the ITV Sport team enlisted a group of broadcast technology specialists, including Anna Valley, to collaborate on the technical design and delivery of the concept according to their specifications.
The mixed-reality ‘window on the world’ element of the set created by Anna Valley uses high-resol

UK - A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) has announced the appointment of well-known industry figure Dave Ball in a newly-created audio sales executive role.
Joining AC-ET’s specialist audio division, Ball’s primary focus will be on developing business for the Dynamic Audio Device (D.A.D.) professional audio brand, which is exclusively distributed in the UK by AC-ET and in the ROI by sister company, AC-ET Ireland.
Operating out of AC-ET’s Northern sales office in Leeds, he will spend most of his time on the road visiting clients and carrying out product demonstrations. Ball will also represent AC-ET’s other key audio lines, as well as complementary services such as Tourflex Cabling custom cable assembly.
Ball previously held technical sales and business development roles for speaker brands and pro-audio distributors including RCF, Polar Audio, LMC a

Italy - Claypaky has announced the appointment of Marcus Graser as the new CEO of the company. He replaces former CEO Pio Nahum, who is retiring on 1 October after 30 years in the lighting industry, the last 10 spent at the Italian lighting manufacturer.
Graser, 42, is an experienced Osram executive who has spent the past 15 years in a variety of roles at the organisation, most recently as head of business development and innovation for entertainment. When Osram acquired Claypaky, Graser led the Osram side of the integration. He has been Nahum’s designated successor, working closely with the former CEO since the start of 2019.
"I am proud of having become the new CEO of Claypaky and to oversee the exciting progress we anticipate in the years to come,” comments Graser. “I feel however that this is the right time to express on behalf of an entire Claypaky community
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UK - Entertainment technology charity Backup is launching The Backup Pumpkin Challenge, a competition to help raise awareness of the charity in a fun and creative way.
To participate, you need a pumpkin, your design, and any props or tech you want to incorporate to bring your design to life. Fundraisers are also welcome but not required.
The Backup Pumpkin Challenge consists of four categories: Best Overall Design; Best Use of Tech; Most Money Raised (via the Backup Pumpkin Challenge Fundraising Page); Most Overall Likes (on Instagram).
To enter a design, participants need to upload up to three photos and/or a video no longer than 15 seconds to Instagram using #BackupPumpkinChallenge along with your name or team name. All entries must be posted by 31 October. Winn

UK - The 2019 PLASA Show was “the busiest in years” thanks to a six per cent increase in attendance, PLASA has reported. The event’s global status was also strengthened, with delegates from over 63 countries flocking to the London-based tradeshow.
This was the last edition of the event that was held at Olympia’s National Hall, with the 2020 PLASA Show set to move to London Olympia’s Grand Hall to accommodate a greater number of stands and show features.
“PLASA Show has clearly been improving year on year with 2019 being the best one yet,” comments Johan Gunsing, international sales manager for Adam Hall Group. “We have started to see a wider geographic audience attend the show which brings with it new opportunities, new business and increased brand awareness.”
“Once again PLASA did not disappoint,” comments Gareth Collyer, Nexo’s UK sales m

UK - Ayrton launched two new products and previewed another at a very successful PLASA 2019 along with its exclusive UK distributor, Ambersphere Solutions. Perseo-S and Huracan-X were the two to receive their official launch and visitors were treated to a first look at Karif-LT, due for release at LDI in November.
Shipping with immediate effect, Perseo-S is a multi-function IP65-rated fixture. Weighing in at just over 38kg and designed for the broadest range of applications, Perseo-S is also ideal for both indoor and outdoor use thanks to its compact size, output and ease of service. Feature rich from the factory (including 100% framing shutters, a wealth of effects and gobo options, a subtractive CMY colour mixing system and further colour options for an infinite palette of vivid pastels and saturated colours), Perseo-S produces 27,000lm (calibrated at 8000K) from its 500W

Gendered Awards - The Brit Awards say they will review the way they distribute prizes, with one option being the abolition of separate male and female categories. But reports that gendered awards have already been axed are "based on rumour and speculation", organisers said. "We can 100% confirm that there will be male and female awards in the UK and international categories in February 2020," they told the BBC.
The statement was issued after a story in The Sunday Times at the weekend claimed organisers wanted to accommodate non-binary artists - who identify as neither male nor female - and that scrapping gender-specific categories was the likely outcome. The report came a week after pop star Sam Smith asked fans to call them by the pronouns "they/them", not "he/him". "After a lifetime of being at war with my gender I've decided to embrace myself for who I am, inside and out,

France - Lighting solutions manufacturer GLP has appointed Bruno P. Souchaud to head up its newly-formed subsidiary, GLP France.
Souchaud has nearly three decades’ experience in international show lighting, including three years with the French GLP distributor, LA BS.
GLP board member Kasper Gissel comments: “We are fortunate to have the services of such a lighting industry veteran as Bruno. The move will bring us closer to our customers and key LD’s. GLP has been specified by French LDs for many years, and previously we have done business directly with the major rental houses in France. So the timing is perfect for GLP to put a more solid structure in place and to further increase our presence in the market.”
Bruno says he is relishing the new challenge. “When Udo [Kuenzler], Kasper and the GLP team set out to emulate the formula that had worked so wel

Europe - RCF’s TT 08-A II active two-way loudspeaker is now shipping. The smallest member of the TT+ family, the speaker is suitable for applications from live sound to playback and monitoring, corporate events and broadcast studios.
The TT 08-A II offers a maximum sound pressure level of 128dB; onboard DSP provides linear phase filters and crossover, system equalisation, polarity control, fast limiter, RMS limiter and configuration control from the back panel or advanced management via RDNet. The advanced FiRPHASE filtering algorithm optimises dynamics, amplitude and phase patterns while ensuring minimum system latency.
Onboard DSP provides linear phase FiRPHASE processing, system equalisation, polarity control, fast limiter, RMS limiter, and configuration control. All features are accessible and adjustable on the rear panel or remotely via RDNet networked managemen

Germany - Colour Sound Experiment returned to the Olympiastadion in Berlin for the 2019 Lollapalooza festival where they were the lighting and LED screen supplier - plus all related sub-rigging - for the Perry’s (Dance) Stage.
The West London-based technical specialist has been involved with the two-day event since 2015 when the Berlin edition of the popular music extravaganza started.
It was the second year for Lolla Berlin at the Olympiapark site, and once again Perry’s Stage was inside the Stadium arena itself, where the line-up was headlined by Underworld on Saturday and Martin Garrix on Sundaysupported by Don Diablo, Scooter, TV Noise and others.
Ricardo Lorenzini (crew chief) and Dave Ross led the Colour Sound crew, who sub hung three LX trusses from the roof plus four vertical tower trusses per side in the mid-stage area. Another lighting truss was rig

South Africa - Having congregated in the Barnyard Theatre in Rivonia, and filling the venue to its maximum capacity, the CRC Church started a 10-month project to build a new 6,000-seater church in Fourways.
DWR Distribution supplied and installed lighting, audio and AV equipment for the church which opened earlier this year, ranging from a grandMA3 compact console, 64 Robe lighting fixtures, an Absen DWP3.9mm screen, Prolyte trussing, L-Acoustics Kara System and a DiGiCo SD12.
The CRC Church led by Pastor At Boshoff, already has two branches in Bloemfontein, a massive auditorium in Pretoria and 90 satellite meeting points where services are broadcast each week.
“Pastor At is a focused man,” says Robert Izzett of DWR, who headed the install. “He is very straight, honest and doesn’t mince his words.”
While the CRC buildings are similar to each othe

USA - Vampire Weekend is currently touring North America in support of its fourth studio album, Father of the Bride. Much has changed over the past six years, when the band released its previous record, Modern Vampires of the City, but one thing that hasn’t is the group’s continued use of L-Acoustics loudspeakers for its touring PA.
Serving as Vampire Weekend’s FOH engineer for over a decade, Neil Heal has long been a fan of the French manufacturer’s products. “L-Acoustics is simply one of the very best systems out there, and I love the scalability of K1, K2, and Kara all sounding consistently great and working together seamlessly,” he says. “We’re primarily using K2 mains and Kara out-fills on this tour, and I also love the fact that the arrays go down so low, frequency-wise, without ever being muddy. We could almost do shows without the subs,

USA - JMT Show Concepts is a specialist in media playback systems, providing rental and operation of solutions for concert touring, corporate events and various one-off special shows. For the past year or more, the company has been an owner of Green Hippo’s Hippotizer media servers.
“When we were searching for new systems for JMT, our number one priority was stability - and we found it in Hippotizer,” says company owner, Jorge Toro. “One of the most amazing things about Hippotizer, which surprised me from day one, is how user-friendly and stable it is to use.”
Impressed by Hippotizer’s reliability, as much as its advanced features and workflow, Toro decided to invest in Boreal+ and Karst+ systems running Hippotizer V4. HippoSchool training was delivered in Orlando by Green Hippo product specialist Cory Froke, and Toro took his new Hippotizers straight out t

USA - On 25 May, country music star Eric Church played a special show at Nissan Stadium in Nashville. The show was extraordinary in that it marked the first stadium headlining performance in Church's 15-year career and with 56,521 fans in attendance impressively broke Taylor Swift’s previous venue record.
The show was special for another reason as well. The last date of an extended spring run on the artist’s Double Down tour, lighting and production designer Butch Allen specified 135 Elation Professional IP65 Proteus Hybrids to fill the stadium in beams and effects. The multi-functional weatherproof lights were an addition to a large lighting package that also included some 420 Elation ACL 360i single beam moving heads.
“We chose the fixture as it was the last show of the spring leg, outdoors and a completely different show than we normally do,” says Allen of

Sweden - Elite Park Avenue hotel is one of Gothenburg’s premier establishments, and also hosts the At PARK restaurant, run by Michelin-starred chef, Stefan Karlsson. Specialist Uppsala-based AV, lighting and multimedia systems integrator, Kreativ Teknik, was commissioned to develop a complete solution including audio and lighting automation for the restaurant and bar, and they opted for Genelec installation loudspeakers.
Kreativ Teknik’s Daniel Landmark comments: “Our first priority was sound quality. We needed to achieve smooth, even coverage and a balanced soundscape at low volumes that is pleasant to listen to without being aggressive or intrusive. However, the system is running almost 24 hours a day and, during the weekend, also needs to be able to run comfortably at high SPLs for several hours when the DJ is in residence. We required a high-quality system with bot

UK - Blitz has completed its installation of a new radio mic system for the West End musical production of The Phantom of the Opera.
Last weekend, Blitz’s theatre sound team installed a Sennheiser radio mic system at the production’s home of Her Majesty’s Theatre, London.
Blitz has supported producers Cameron Mackintosh Ltd in delivering The Phantom of the Opera since the show opened in 1986 and holds the crown for the longest serving sound provider to the same musical production in the same location in the West End.
The production has also used Sennheiser radio mics since the show began with this installation being the fourth generation of Sennheiser wireless to be instated. The new equipment included EM 6000 Digital Receivers with SK 6212 Digital Mini-Bodypacks and a Wavetool Audio Monitoring Software system.
Martyn Hunt, head of th

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