USA - ESTA has announced that A. Scott Hoyt will receive the 2018 Swan Award. This award is only given when an individual has served the association above and beyond the call of duty.
Scott’s service on the ESTA board of directors began in 2007. In 2012 Scott was elected to the office of treasurer and served as the treasurer of the PLASA Governing Body as well. As treasurer, he was a member of the executive committee as well as an ex-officio member of the Technical Standards and ETCP councils. His second and final term as ESTA’s treasurer comes to an end 31 December, 2018.
Though he has completed his service as Treasurer, Scott continues to chair the oversight committee of the business peer group and serves on the member advisory group.
(Jim Evans)

USA Chauvet Professional makes it possible to cover a wider area with an even coloured wash on indoor and outdoor stages. Introduced just in time for festival season, the company’s new IP65 rated COLORado Panel Q40 features a magnetic flood filter that produces a very wide, but still even wash.
Powered by 40 15-watt RGBW LEDs, the rectangular wash fixture has a bright output (up to 9,480 lux at 5m) and creates perfectly smooth edge-to edge colour mixing. An adjustable beam angle of 15° or 24° adds to its versatility.
“We developed the COLORado Panel Q40 in response to the demand on the part of designers for a reliable IP65 rated wash with a wide coverage area that could be used at festivals, amphitheaters and similar outdoor venues without sacrificing colour quality,” said Albert Chauvet, CEO of Chauvet. “The bright output of the COLORado Panel Q40 also makes

UK - With Oscar-winning film credits such as Gravity and Slumdog Millionaire in its portfolio, Pinewood-based Sound 24 is one of the leading post production sound facilities specialising in film and TV.
While Glenn Freemantle picked up a 2014 Oscar for best sound editing on Gravity, his Sound 24 partner Niv Adiri shared the award for best achievement in sound mixing on the same movie, while both have many BAFTA award credits to their name.
Both are discerning when it comes to sound production, and in upgrading their studio at Pinewood to an immersive Dolby Atmos mix room they have chosen Harman’s JBL 7 Series reference monitors for all monitoring; front, surround and overhead. The system incorporates JBL’s new Intonato 24 monitor controller for Atmos. All were supplied by reseller Jigsaw 24.
As Adiri explained, “We have used the room fo

USA - The Classical Academy (TCA) in Colorado Springs recently debuted its new performing arts auditorium with a production of The Little Mermaid enhanced by an all LED Elation Professional lighting system designed and installed by Second Opinion Audio.
Second Opinion Audio designed all of the audio, lighting, video and motor control systems for the new performing arts space. “This is a total state-of-the-art system and we needed to have the lighting system reflect that,” said Second Opinion Audio founder Bob Langlois. “LED was the direction we wanted to go for maximum flexibility for the client. There is no other auditorium of this size that can claim this technology.”
The Elation lighting rig is made up of both dedicated white light luminaires (24 WW Profile warm-white ellipsoidal spots, 12 DTW Par 300 variable white LED Par lights) and full colour LE

Germany - Dynacord’s award-winning IPX amplifiers for fixed installations have made their world debut in one of Europe’s most significant stadium projects – the rejuvenation of the historic Berlin Olympiastadion.
Long known as one of the best-sounding stadiums in Germany, the historic location was outfitted in 2004 with an Electro-Voice system in time for the 2006 World Cup final. After 12 years of faithful service, that system has been upgraded to benefit from the power, energy-saving and networking flexibility of the Dynacord IPX range of amplifiers.
In addition, the stadium’s existing 171 Electro-Voice XLC loudspeakers have been upgraded to the DVX version for more powerful sound and increased intelligibility.
With an overall ambition of reducing the total cost of system ownership, the new solution had to feature IP connectivity, Dante audio and green

UK - Tim Fawkes has worked for Prodigy since 2012 and been their lighting designer for the last year. He’s currently fully embroiled in creating a lighting riot for the current No Tourists, tour promoting the Prodigy’s seventh album.
HSL is again the lighting supplier, and the band are playing arenas and living up to their reputation for being among the most exciting live acts around.
Tim went for a massive, wide and “epic” look for the stage. “I wanted to get away from the postage stamp look of some shows in arenas, where only a tiny part of the actual venue is involved,” he explained. In addition to feeling the energy and atmospherics of the lighting, the band wanted to embrace the whole audience and pull them kicking and screaming into the Prodigy live trip and lighting plays an absolutely instrumental part in this process.
Tim was also invo

USA - The Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Alaska, Anchorage (UAA) has taken delivery of Ayrton Ghibli fixtures, supplied by ACT Lighting, Inc., Ayrton’s exclusive distributor in North America.
Professor Daniel J. Anteau, the Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance whose specialty is lighting design, had been looking to introduce cutting-edge LED moving head fixtures to use in UAA’s Main Stage and Harper Studio Theatre. He saw Ghibli online, enquired about the new light’s capabilities and sought out Ghibli users.
“I wanted to know if it was as amazing as it appeared online,” says Anteau. “It seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. Users told me how Ghibli compared to other fixtures I knew. That gave me a lot of confidence moving forward.”
Anteau intends to share the Ghibli fixtures between UAA’s two stages. Although

China - d&b audiotechnik has made a further commitment to its Asia Pacific customers by establishing a new subsidiary in China. d&b audiotechnik and its previous partner in China, d&b China, are realigning their successful partnership by establishing a new cooperation named d&b audiotechnik Greater China Ltd., based in Hong Kong.
The foundation of a subsidiary of d&b audiotechnik Greater China Ltd. with offices in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai is also under way. Forty-four co-workers from the previous partner, based in Hong Kong, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, will join the new cooperation.
d&b audiotechnik is headquartered in Backnang, Germany where it carries out its research, development and production. d&b audiotechnik Greater China Group will be responsible for sales, marketing, service and support for sales partners and customers i
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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. 

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UK - Specialist music venue company VMS Live appointed technical production specialist Adlib to provide a new audio and lighting design and installation in the popular 1900 capacity Eventim Olympia in Liverpool, UK, one of the high profile live music sites that VMS operates.
This project was led by VMS’s MD Steve Forster and Adlib’s Andy Dockerty who in turn enlisted the knowledge and practical expertise of two of Adlib’s most experienced engineers - Ian Nelson (audio) and Stuart Gray (lighting), choosing a Coda PA and a Chauvet moving light rig.
The general goal was to provide tour-grade in-house production options for visiting artists both in terms of practicality and creative scope, so they can avoid the expense and hassle of bringing in their full productions.
The auditorium was originally constructed in 1905 – designed by legendary theatrical archite

China - Shenzhen’s Happy Valley Amusement Park, having celebrated its 20th anniversary in October, is still going strong, receiving over 30m tourists from China and overseas in that time. The Park wanted to make some special changes for its anniversary, to keep the experience fresh, and decided that a sound reinforcement upgrade was the way forward. Ultimately they chose a Martin Audio WPC line array.
Happy Valley is China’s first domestic amusement park chain, with seven locations across China and an eighth opening in 2019. Happy Valley, having previously worked with Budee and Martin Audio on its Chongqing park, once again decided on the same partnership, this time for its flagship venue.
The park looked to upgrade its Water World sound stage, where a flexible system that could be used for a variety of shows was required. The multi-resolution options that exist i

UK - The Green Hippo training team took to the road to deliver a week-long residency at Backstage Academy in Production Park, Wakefield, as well as a private training session in Lithuania.
October was another packed month for the Green Hippo training division, involving a week-long residency at Backstage Academy in Production Park and a successful private training session into the Baltic region.
Green Hippo is renowned for its commitment to training excellence - its Hippotizer training sessions, known as HippoSchool, have been running for over 10 years, visiting over 38 countries and training over 2,000 students, freelancers and professionals - and October 2018 marked the beginning of Green Hippo’s new partnership with Backstage Academy, the Production Park-based centre of excellence that specialises in degree courses, short courses and training programmes for the li

USA - Sitting on a sprawling campus in the Bothell community outside of Seattle, Cedar Park Church was founded in 1970 and has, for the last nearly 50 years, been growing each year.
When the time came to upgrade the church’s sound system in its 970-seat main auditorium, the decision to install a new system from Clair Brothers.
Steve Palermo, owner, LIFT AV, consultant and project manager of the new system, explains: “No architectural changes had to be made, however, we did spec the system for the church’s planned future renovations. This Clair Brothers kiTCurve12 system was designed to accommodate future renovations without requiring any further system enhancements or funding.”
Cedar Park Church’s old system was antiquated and due for a modern approach. The first step of the physical installation was the removal of all eighteen of the old speakers, ten

USA - When fast-growing Action Church in Florida decided to transform an older building into the ministry’s new broadcast location, they chose to dynamically light the space using an Elation Professional intelligent lighting system designed by AVL integration company Crown Design Group (CDG).
Action Church opened the new chapter, its fourth, in Winter Park, Florida, this past fall. As a dedicated broadcast location, the main sermon takes place at the new facility and is then fed live to Action Church’s other locations, one smaller location and two mobile sites that are set up and torn down each weekend that CDG has also outfitted with Elation gear.
“Every Action Church location has live music and a pastor host but this is their first large, non-mobile location,” says CDG co-founder Ben Graham, whose passion is to see churches inspire and grow their congregati

UK - Accompanied by an Allen & Heath dLive mixing system, English rockers Nothing But Thieves finally return to the UK, bringing their mammoth year-long world tour to an end.
SSE Audio - one of the largest rental stockists of Allen & Heath products in the UK - supplied the full audio set-up, which includes a dLive S7000 and DM64 MixRack fitted with Dante for multitrack recording and virtual soundcheck on FOH and a dLive S5000 with a DM64 MixRack on monitors.
Gary Curtis, FOH engineer and long-time user of Allen & Heath products, comments: “I first came across dLive at SXSW several years ago and I instantly found it very user-friendly, great sounding and very quick to assign layers, but the flexibility of the system is what really drew me in. Now I’ll use dLive at every opportunity I have - for this tour, I even convinced our monitor engineer (David) to

UK - Neutrik UK and NTi Audio (formerly Neutrik Technical Instruments) have jointly agreed the cessation of the current agreement, effective 1 January 2019, under which NTi Audio’s range of test and measurement solutions for acoustics, audio and vibration applications is exclusively distributed by Neutrik in the UK.
NTi Audio UK will assume responsibility for the distribution, service and customer support for NTi products in Great Britain and Ireland.
Neutrik UK head of sales & marketing, Andy Croucher said, “The increasing divergence of our respective product lines has diminished the brand synergies that were more obvious in previous years. The current interests of NTi’s user base are clearly better served by dedicated specialist distribution and aftercare arrangements. Neutrik UK is confident that NTi Audio UK’s specialist skill set and knowledge base wil

UK - Temporary and permanent installations specialist Setsquare Staging has invested in print and interior design company Enigma Visual Solutions and event and print production company, GTMS.
Enigma and GTMS will both continue to operate from their Marlow and Waterlooville bases respectively but the companies will combine their services.
John O’Gorman, creative director and founder of Setsquare, comments: “We are extremely excited to embark on this new venture. Both Enigma and GTMS are specialists within the print, build and staging industries, delivering creative solutions to clients on an international level. We will combine our services to produce industry leading solutions. We will be building branded environments second to none.”
Reno Macri, founder of Enigma Visual Solutions, adds: “I founded Enigma in my parents’ spare bedroom as a sign company

Stream On - Dua Lipa is the most-streamed female artist in the UK so far this year, according to figures from both Spotify and Apple Music. Her song One Kiss, with Calvin Harris, was the second most-streamed track on both services, behind Drake's One Plan. Lipa's self-titled album was the third most-streamed record in the UK, and the fourth globally, on Spotify. The star, who won best female at this year's Brits, has just been announced as Vogue's January cover star.
Creative Call - Schools should only be awarded an “outstanding” rating by Ofsted if they can demonstrate excellence in teaching creative subjects alongside academic ones, a leading education charity has claimed. The report is produced by the Edge Foundation, which aims to shape the future of education in the UK, and its calls echo those of bodies such as Arts Council England, whic

UK - Live events educational facility Backstage Academy has announced its new leadership team for 2019.
The team will be headed by vice-principal Rachel Nicholson, whose arrival is the culmination of an eminent journey in the theatre world. After gaining a degree in lighting design, she was awarded a postgraduate studentship to study an MA in Theatre Practice where she specialised in Lighting and Digital Scenography. Nicholson subsequently pursued a successful freelance career, working in a variety of venues and companies including Sadlers Wells and The National Theatre as a lighting designer and technician, before returning to the education sector permanently in 2006.
Also joining is Richard Sadler as academic director. He has worked in repertory theatre, touring and the West End. He spent eight years with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden before joining the Lond

USA - Flex Rental Solutions has announced that Flex5 Phone - its newly designed phone app - has been released to all customers.
Flex5 is the company’s new HTML5 user interface and features a complete rewrite of Flex’s user interface and backend architecture. Flex5 will eventually replace Flex’s current Flash UI by adding a new desktop environment.
Flex5 Phone is already available for download in the Apple App Store for iPhones and in the Google Play store for Android devices. Flex5 Phone replaces Flex Mobile, which is no longer available in the App store.
In August of this year, Flex Rental Solutions announced that it had released Flex5 Tablet.
“We’re really excited about the progress we’ve made bringing new ways for our users to track and manage their inventory in the warehouse and on the go,” says Chris Stein, CEO of Flex Rental Solutions

USA/Europe - ADJ has announced the immediate availability of its new and improved PX HEX Series of LED-powered pars.
Building on the success of the original HEX Series of wash fixtures, the new units feature improvements that are the direct result of customer feedback.
The PX HEX Series retains the practical design and colour mixing potential of the original fixtures, but with the added advantage of two professional-calibre enhancements requested by existing users.
The PX HEX Series fixtures are fitted with powerCON input and output sockets in place of the IEC sockets found on the original HEX Series units. This allows for a reliable power connection that locks securely into place and won’t pull out accidentally. It also allows for easy integration into professional stage rigs that are setup with powerCON power distribution.
All of the new units are also

Norway - Norwegian LD Kimarius Abrahamsen chose Ayrton MagicBlade-R and MagicBlade-FX lighting fixtures as the main structural elements of his design for Cezinando’s tour and summer festival appearances this year, helping earn the Norwegian singer, rapper and songwriter his third NRK P3 Gull (Gold) Award as Live Artist of the Year.
Bary AS was responsible for the production design of Cezinando’s show and the supply of the majority of the technical equipment, including the Ayrton MagicBlade fixtures.
Frode Eggum Have of Bary AS says: “We want to congratulate Cezinando on his fantastic win and would like to think it might have something to do with his killer concert at Øyafestivalen earlier this summer which had everyone talking!”
Bary worked closely with Abrahamsen on Cezinando’s show for Øyafestivalen, one of Norway’s biggest. But Abrahamsen’s st

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