UK - PSAV has appointed Nik Rudge as the company’s first managing director, international. Rudge will build upon the international business strategy to “best align teams in the UK, Europe and the Middle East to continue to improve on ways the company serves customers globally”.
Rudge most recently served as CEO of GovNet Communications, a public-sector business that operates training, forum, conference and expo events. He has also led multi-country divisions for ITE Group and UBM, two market-leading tradeshow and exhibition companies.
“Nik has vast international business experience in the events industry having led teams in fast-moving, complex and multicultural environments,” comments Ben Erwin, president of PSAV. “His general approach and business insight

USA - ADJ has expanded its AV Series of LED video panels with a new high-resolution model.
Each of the AV2 panels features a configuration of 3-in-1 RGB SMD2121 LEDs with a pixel pitch of 2.97mm (0.17”), allowing for vivid video display and a low minimum viewing distance.
With a brightness of 1000 nits and blackface LEDs for superior contrast, the AV2 features a pixel density of 168 x 168, which is equivalent to 112,896 p/sq.m. It offers a wide viewing angle of 160-degrees (horizontal) and 60° (vertical - up and down) from a minimum viewing distance of just 9.75ft (2.97m). This makes it ideal for use in situations where impactful large screen displays are required but that can be viewed from close-up as well as over a long distance.
With compact dimensions of 19.75” x 19.75” x 3” / 500mm x 500mm x 73mm and a low weight of 17.64lbs/ 8kg, the AV2 panels a

Spain - After appointing Spain’s VTècnics as a distributor, Clair Brothers has added another Spanish company as a rental partner, Grupo Friends.
Francisco Yllana, general director of Grupo Friends, comments: “We met up with technicians from VTècnics and they told us about Clair Brothers and their reputation globally. Until recently, it was nearly impossible to find Clair Brothers in Spain, but it was at this moment, talking to VTècnics, that we began to feel we could achieve the kind of market differentiation we aim for, with an exclusive team of the highest quality.”
The Spanish company purchased a C12 system and has already expanded its stage monitoring range with the Clair Brothers 1AM system. Grupo Friends also added the kiTCurve system for side-fills or, as the case may be, as a perfect mini PA for smaller spaces. To complete its Clair Brothers system, t

Iceland - Lava Tunnel is a spectacular lava tube tunnel - one of the longest in Iceland at 1360m. Its majestic and intricate interior collage of colours and textures is the result of massive volcanic eruptions 5000 years ago.
At the entrance, three openings in the ceiling create columns of light, while at the end, it splits into three smaller tunnels all equally imbibed with natural beauty.
All these geological masterworks are now releveled by a creative lighting installation designed by Agust Gunnlaugsson, senior lighting designer at Oslo, Norway and Reykjavik, Iceland based company EFLA Engineers, utilising 100 Anolis ArcSource LED fixtures.
The tunnel’s proximity to Icelandic capital Reykjavik had made it popular with visitors for some time, so much so that in 2016, it was closed due to vandalism, littering and health and safety concerns.
(Jim Evans)

Croatia - HUST has installed over 1,000 Apart and Community loudspeakers as part of new audio and video systems at the Valamar Girandella Resort. The complex, located in Rabac on the Adriatic coast of northern Croatia, comprises the Girandella Family Hotel, the Girandella Maro Suites - Kinderhotel, the Girandella adult hotel, the Girandella Premium Villas, the Bellevue hotel and the Sundance Beach Club.
In the system design, HUST chose Apart loudspeakers for background music zones, while Community loudspeakers were used for AV and conferencing and in the pool areas where all-weather capability was essential. To ensure maximum versatility, the complex has over 40 independent audio zones, which can be further divided into separate areas in several facilities. To provide this level of zoning, and control with ease of use, HUST installed a Biamp TesiraFORTÉ system with Tesira T

USA - My Bloody Valentine has a well-earned reputation as one of the loudest bands on the road. Faced with the problem of how to mix at the group’s excessive levels without doing long-term damage to his own hearing, FOH engineer Philip J. Harvey found a solution: Sensaphonics 3D AARO in-ears with Active Ambient technology.
“The fans get free earplugs with their tickets, but I’m out there every night and definitely at risk,” notes the Amsterdam-based engineer. “I’ve tried everything, including regular IEMs and custom earplugs, but the 3D system is really the only thing that lets me do my job effectively. It’s basically replaced my headphones out at FOH.”
My Bloody Valentine shows hit 110 dB and can sometimes exceed 120 dBA SPL towards the end of the show. “It’s sort of a trademark for the band, and definitely part of my job description,” says Harve

Switzerland - Powersoft amplification has been selected as a key component in the newly installed audio system at Roadhouse Luzern - a bustling venue at the heart of the city’s party scene.
Roadhouse hosts jam sessions, live concerts, special events and parties. The venue originally sought a company to perform a general service on its existing audio setup, in addition to replacing a handful of defective or outdated components. After an exhaustive inventory - and with the future in mind - it became clear that a more comprehensive overhaul was the way to go.
Swiss company Skuma AG - a sound reinforcement specialist with over 40 years of experience - was awarded the contract for its Dante-capable overall concept, with the Powersoft gear distributed by Go Wild AG.
During the implementation period, the venue’s restaurant was to stay open seven days-a-week, with

UK - SXS Events recently used Current RMS’ Open API to create a number of integrations to streamline workflow. The Open API is available for any of their software users to access and build with, for them to develop exciting and useful integrations that utilise their data within Current RMS.
Established in 1998, UK-based SXS Events specialises in event production and dry hire, and has grown to be a multi-million pound event production company. Using the Current RMS Open API, they created X Hire, a platform for their clients to view products directly on their website and hire them. Built to work alongside their normal website, this space allows them to pull across products and key information from Current RMS and onto a platform their new and existing clients can easily access and view.
“The website is a great tool for both the office team and clients. Instead of t
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Denmark - Popular Danish band Nephew reunited this year after a four-year hiatus, announcing two major gigs in October 2018 at the Jyske Bank Boxen Arena in Herning and the Royal Arena in Copenhagen. Over 30,000 tickets sold out in a day.
Lighting designer Theis Wemuth of design company Create This was tasked with the production design - lighting, video and set - for the shows. He specified 149 x Robe MegaPointes as the main moving light fixtures.
The fixtures were chosen for their multifunctionality and brightness which Wemuth knew would be a perfect complement and contrast to the 420sq.m widescreen video backdrop that was central to the look and aesthetics of the stage.
Eight BMFL Spots were on the front truss, six working as remote follow spots in conjunction with six Robe RoboSpot systems, together with other lights, all of which were supplied by Copenhagen-b

USA - The new 200,000sq.ft Texas Live! entertainment complex features an array of dining, live music, and other entertainment options - and, next year, the first Live! by Loews boutique hotel.
Backed by the Texas Rangers and City of Arlington, among others, the $250m complex recently celebrated its grand opening, an event heard loud and clear via Kara and Kiva II systems in two of its primary performance spaces networked via AVB and processed by the Lone Star State’s first installed P1 digital audio processor.
The performance venues include a 5,000-capacity outdoor event pavilion, Arlington Backyard, and the Live! Arena, a 35,000sq.ft, two-level concert and festival space featuring a gourmet burger restaurant owned by Dallas Cowboys icon Troy Aikman. Both venues now sport L-Acoustics systems specified and designed by Las Vegas-based consultant Coherent Design, instal

Sustainable Art - An environmental programme designed to help arts organisations become more sustainable has helped its participants reduce their energy consumption by almost a quarter in the past six years, saving £16.5m as a result. The group of 136 of Arts Council England’s national portfolio organisations have also decreased their carbon emissions by 35% in this time period, according to a report on the scheme by ACE and green arts charity Julie’s Bicycle.
These figures are the culmination of a partnership between Julie’s Bicycle and the Arts Council that began in 2012 with the aim of encouraging arts organisations to become more environmentally sustainable. As part of the six-year programme, the 136 participating organisations consistently reported data at regular intervals across the period. 47 of these were theatre organisations, including the Royal Court and t

UK - Broadcast and event lighting specialists Version 2 has appointed Graham Baskeyfield as its new finance director.
Working closely with Version 2’s MD Nick Edwards, Baskeyfield will play a key role in the company’s expansion over the next five years, as they realise their 2022 vision.
He joins from Aurora, where he’d previously collaborated with Edwards, their then incumbent MD. During their tenure the company went on to exceed plan year on year delivering significant growth to its shareholders. The success of Aurora was crystallised in 2015 with its acquisition by VER (PRG).
Edwards comments: “We are delighted to be welcoming Graham to his new role at Version 2. His experience is second to none, and is well in-tune with the challenges of our ever-changing fast-paced industry. Graham is already well respected by both our team, and external stakehold

UK - A new 1000mm Heavy Duty Boom Arm capable of taking the weight of a moving light has been launched by Doughty Engineering. The latest addition to the Boom Arm range is set to offer users an attractive solution without the need for a brace.
Mark Chorley, design engineer at Doughty, explains: "Our Boom Arm range is already extremely popular with our customers. The regular Boom Arm works well in most scenarios and has a 25kg Safe Working Load. However, the feedback we were getting from customers is that they wanted something that would allow them to hang moving lights in environments where the overall aesthetic is important."
He continues: "Up until now, anyone wanting to hang a moving light would have to use our Braced Boom Arm which is capable of taking a 100kg weight. However this depends on a brace support which, while effective isn't necessarily the most attracti

UK - The UK Hog Factor competition final took place at Production Futures as two teams competed in a lighting showdown using High End Systems’ Hog 4 console.
Rose Bruford’s ‘Two CLCs and A Norwegian Walk Into A Bar’ won the lighting programming contest, whilst ‘Hogging Bruford’ finished runners-up. The finalists programmed to Foo Fighters’ Pretender.
The judges, including renowned LD Jonathan Armstrong and senior product manager for Hog consoles, Sarah Clausen, took into account the artistic impression of the live show as well as the programming style of the Hog 4. They agreed that the winning team “produced a better structured show in the desk, and had a better use of colour and contrast with their design, portraying a better journey throughout the song”.
Clausen comments: “Both teams showed a real ability to break down the song and s

South Africa - Rock band Prime Circle have invested in Robe fixtures. Marco Gomes the band’s bass guitarist, songwriter and manager together with lighting designer Benjamin ‘Benji’ Muir-Mills chose Robe miniPointes, LEDBeam 150s and VIVAs which the band have purchased from distributor DWR.
Gomes and Muir-Mills explained that touring in South Africa can be challenging - many venues on the circuit offer minimal lighting, so having their own rig now means that wherever they go, they can enjoy the continuity of a great lightshow, fans get better production values and less time is needed for re-plotting each show. Instead that creative clawback can be spent in developing the core lightshow they now enjoy with their own kit. It also makes get ins and outs significantly quicker and more efficient.
The decision to go with Robe was based on having used the products on ma

Austria - Studio Due Light, in collaboration with Laman Gmbh in Austria, has recently illuminated the Novomatic Forum in Vienna as part of a façade lighting overhaul. The previous fixtures installed were traditional luminaries with a high-level of energy wasted.
The project included replacing the façade uplighters on the ground and first floors, along with the balcony lighting around the forum. Confronted with new challenges to accommodate the LED fixtures, the specifiers noticed the impossibility to run DMX cable to the bottom part of the building, to replace the in-ground fixtures with the energy-efficient ones.
Faced with this issue, Mr. Robert Makovsky of Leman Gmbh turned to Studio Due to come up with a cost-effective solution. After several tests on-site, Studio Due implemented W-DMX into their Terra Plus RGBW RDM fixtures. “We have implemented Nano TRX modul

South Korea - Merging Technologies has delivered one of the largest Ravenna/AES67 installations for its networked audio interfaces. It features 16 Horus units, 11 Hapi units and 35 8-channel Premium A/D cards and 37 Premium D/A cards. It is also the first major installation to feature Aneman Enterprise as the master control for the whole system and the list of show control and playout servers is no less impressive. There are eight Ovation systems for all zones matrix routing and processing and six Emotion systems for audio-on-demand playback which can all operate in DXD by virtue of the premium cards being fitted.
Paradise City is such a huge complex and the audio network is across four buildings and features 35 zones with 69 subsidiary zones and these zones encompass four floors of a hotel, three floors of pools and spas, two conference rooms, public areas including a patio

Europe - Grammy Award-winning artist, Imogen Heap, has taken to the road for the first time in eight years on a 40-week long Mycelia world tour, accompanied by an Allen & Heath dLive system and frequently partnering with a d&b audiotechnik Soundscape, to provide an immersive 3D audio experience for concert goers.
The full live set-up includes a dLive DM0 MixRack along with two DX168 expanders, purchased specifically for this tour (through Ampco-Flashlight-Sales), which are used in a multi-surface configuration to control both FOH and MON from a single MixRack. The configuration employed on the tour sees the DM0’s 128 input processing channels split to provide 64 input channels with discrete processing for both monitors and FOH.
dLive Director software is utilised for monitoring system control with all musicians having access to individual iPads runni

Denmark - More than 130,000 people and 184 artists saw the AVB debut of Luminex Network Intelligence in a cooperation with Bright Group and Meyer Sound at the Roskilde Festival. On thr Orange stage and the Arena stage, audio was running on AVB protocol from Meyer Sound Galileo Galaxy 816 network platform through a network of 28x GigaCore 10 switches of Luminex Network Intelligence.
“We were very happy to have Luminex on board for the Roskilde festival. There are many reasons to go for the GigaCore range of Luminex but definitely the easiness, the GUI and the rock-solid reliable performance of their switches is remarkable,” says Fredrik Arwidson from Bright Group Sweden. “Furthermore, we were delighted with the upfront training, the intensive testing in our Stockholm warehouse and with the presence of Roel Apers (Support engineer) of Luminex Network Intelligence during

Norway - In Tønsberg, 60 miles from Oslo, the magnificent Foynhagen has grown into one of Norway’s most important venues for concerts during the summer time. This year they presented a very impressive line-up of acts, from Röyksopp, Seigmen, Young Neils, Bo Kaspers Orkester, Cezinando, The Waterboys, Lars Winnerbäck, DumDum Boys and Åge Aleksandersen & Sambandet, among others, in a five-month run of concerts.
In previous years the event has been faced with the challenge of excessive noise pollution outside the venue, with the implementation of various delay systems being used, in an attempt to achieve coverage while keeping leakage to a minimum.
This year, the promoter was introduced to the force of MLA Compact. Inspired by the solution in Hyde Park at British Summer Time, where maximum off-site levels are restricted to 75 dB(A), Spekter AS, the Lillestrøm-

Latvia - In July, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the independent republic was celebrated with an event featuring a choir of 16,5000 voices.
Purpose-built in 1955 the Mežaparks Great Bandstand where the event was staged is an open-air venue of unexpected dimensions. Not unlike a Roman amphitheatre, except that the curved stepped crucible is where the 16,000 plus performers are arrayed, facing onto an audience of up to 30,000. With so many voices and the presentational environment, promoter Girts Majors of Positivus Event turned to audio provider UBS to design an audio solution.
“The implementation of a d&b audiotechnik system was a key component in making this event truly memorable,” says Edmunds Verners Zazerskis, MD of UBS. “UBS was founded in 1998 and we have been providing sound for different choir song festivals for many years; Nordic; Baltic

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