Australia - Robe has confirmed the appointment of Jands as the Australian and New Zealand distributor for Robe and Anolis lighting brands.
Jands is an Australian owned company founded in 1970 that manufactures and distributes some the world’s most recognised lighting, audio and staging products primarily for the entertainment and exhibition industry.
With headquarters and manufacturing facilities in Sydney, a factory in Melbourne and offices in Brisbane and Perth, Jands employs over 120 people across Australia and is ideally located to deliver the superlative service for which they are renowned.
Jands also has an international reputation and worldwide industry recognition for its award-winning range of lighting consoles, among other products.
(Jim Evans)

Bosnia and Herzegovina - Martin Audio has appointed SD Sistemi as its new distributor for Bosnia and Herzegovina. The agreement was borne out of several meetings at trade shows this year.
The Bosnian specialists had first approached Martin Audio with a view to cooperation at ISE in Amsterdam. “During that show we attended the presentation of their new products which were really amazing - and we decided there and then that we wanted these products in our portfolio,” stated SD Sistemi CEO, Dragan Šukalo.
Bradley Watson, Martin Audio’s EMEA sales manager, confirmed this. “When I met the SD Sistemi team at ISE, it was clear they were keen to work with us and following another meeting at Prolight+Sound, where we spent more time with their team in the demo room, the natural step was to formally confirm them as Martin Audio distribution partner in Bosnia and Herzego

Bohemian Rhapsody - The long-in-the-works Queen biopic is “finally happening,” according to a post on the band’s official website. The project has been around in some form or another for over 10 years now, and late last year, after first Sacha Baron Cohen and then Ben Whishaw departed the film due to creative differences, Mr. Robot star Rami Malek was cast as Freddie Mercury.
According to Queen’s Roger Taylor and Brian May, who are serving as executive music producers, “Rami has great presence and he’s utterly dedicated to the project. He’s completely living and breathing Freddie already, which is wonderful.” Bryan Singer is directing, and the film is “as-close-as-that” to the start of shooting, with pre-production beginning this week to prepare for principal photography in London as soon as mid-September.
City Break - Coventry, Paisle

Europe - Ayrton has announced the appointment of Jerad Garza as the latest member of its growing International sales team.
Originating from Texas, Garza entered the industry as show technician with Gemini LSV in Dallas where he spent 17 years learning all aspects of show production, before progressing to the position of sales director and project manager. Roles in European & international sales followed, firstly with Solaris and, most recently, with High End Systems.
Based in South Germany, Garza’s role will be to focus on supporting Ayrton’s existing international clients, in addition to establishing and growing new ones, and will have additional responsibility for selling demo and excess stock worldwide.
“Now is an exciting time to join the Ayrton team, and I cannot wait to meet our partners and contribute to their growth and success,” he says. “

China - PR Lighting’s new XR 440B BWS expands on the existing XR 440 BWS, which integrates three features (Spot, Wash and Beam) in a single unit. Combining the same advanced 440W Osram Sirius lamp technology with superb optical system, it has been upgraded with an animation effect added to the fixed gobo wheel, along with a wide angle (50°) zoom and LCD touch screen control.
Full features include: mechanical strobe (0.3-25 fps with macro); mechanical dimmer (0-100% linearly adjustable); CMY linear colour mixing with macros; colour wheel (13 colours with CTO plus open); rainbow effect with bi-directional and variable speeds; stepping/linear colour changer and fixed gobo wheel (10 gobos plus open, bi-directionally rotatable and shakeable at variable speeds.
(Jim Evans)

Europe - Panasonic has launched a new range of indoor display panels engineered for digital signage.
The Full HD SF2 range replaces the LF8 indoor signage series and features new data cloning software, accessed via LAN, which allows for the copying of menu settings and adjusted values from the original display to multiple others.
The E-LED LCD display is available in four sizes (43, 49, 55 and 65-inch), the adaptable screen features wide-view IPS panel technology with 450 cd/m2.
The addition of multi monitoring and control software enables users to monitor and control the displays alongside any projectors within a facility from a single PC. Up to 2,048 devices can be controlled simultaneously, suitable for use within corporate or education environments.
“We have engineered the SF2 series to offer failure-free round-the-clock operation,” said Enrique Ro

UK - Wireless load monitoring brand BroadWeigh is now an associate member of the Lifting Equipment Engineers Association (LEEA), the leading representative body for all those involved in the lifting industry worldwide. The membership is the latest step taken by BroadWeigh as it strives to be the best – not only in the quality of products that it offers, but in the example the company sets within the entertainment industry.
Jonathan Purdue, business development manager at BroadWeigh said: "Becoming members of LEEA is something we are very proud of. We started the ball rolling several months ago, then in May, a representative from the LEEA came to our premises in Exeter for the day and audited all our BroadWeigh processes and calibration machines.
“Applying for membership isn’t something we are obligated to do, but we felt it was the right thing to do – both for

UK - Hosted in the Idyllic spa town of Buxton, huddled within the Peak District National Park, the Buxton International Festival is a celebration of theatrical and literary excellence which attracts speakers, acts and audiences in coveted numbers.
PRG XL Video supported lighting designer Mike Gunning, and production electrician Tim Ball, with a theatrical lighting package for the three operas headlining this year’s festival at the Buxton Opera House: Verdi’s Macbeth, Britten’s Albert Herring, and Mozart’s Lucio Silla.
Although its heritage can be traced farther back, the current format of the Buxton Festival has been running since the refurbishment of the opera house in 1979 - and has grown to become the highly respected cultural event it is today. Drawing crowds from far and wide, patrons of the Buxton Festival know what they want to see,
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South Africa - FileCatalyst, an Emmy award-winning pioneer in managed file transfers and a world leading accelerated file transfer solution, is pleased to announce that Telemedia is now using FileCatalyst as a solution for their internal operations.
Telemedia (PTY) is a leading provider of dynamic media broadcasting services, and they have a strong proven track record for supplying tailor made quality solutions. Telemedia is located in South Africa with their head office being in Rivonia, Johannesburg. They have also expanded beyond the African marketplace to serve clients in markets worldwide.
The FileCatalyst product they have chosen to use internally is FileCatalyst Direct, which is a suite of server and client applications that accelerates point-to-point file transfers at speeds of up to 10Gbps. FileCatalyst utilizes a patented UDP-based file transfer technology th

Europe - Phil Collins - was on the road last month (June 2017) for his Not Dead Yet mini tour, named as per his autobiography published in October 2016.
Collins’ long term lighting designer Patrick Woodroffe has created a stylish, animated lightshow, which is directed and operated on the road by Roland Greil, who also acted as the associate designer for the show - the two have collaborated on a number of projects in recent years including Adele last year, and on this one they worked closely with set and scenic designer, Misty Buckley.
On the rig are 48 x Robe BMFL Spot moving lights, a Robe RoboSpot remote control system and two PATT 2013s, all being provided by leading UK lighting rental company, Neg Earth.
Patrick has worked for the artist for nearly 20 years and this tour celebrates his return from ‘retirement’, It plays London’s Royal Albert Ha

Singapore - The clarity and fidelity of DPA microphones helped The TENG Ensemble deliver a stunning live performance at the iconic Fullerton Hotel Singapore. Entitled Where the River Always Flows, this debut outdoor performance transformed the Fullerton Hotel Singapore's East Garden Square into an extravaganza filled with the nostalgic sounds of Singapore's heritage music.
DPA d:vote Instrument Microphones were used to amplify a combination of western and Chinese instruments that were played during the performance. These included a cello, a Sheng and a Guzheng. Audio engineer Steve Zhang also used a DPA d:facto Vocal Microphone for the Ensemble's renowned countertenor Phua Ee Kia.
Commenting on his choice of microphones, Zhang says: "Phua Ee Kia has a uniquely expressive and dynamic voice, therefore the d:facto Vocal Microphone's high SPL handling and wide dynam

Europe - One of the most eagerly anticipated and high profile tours to embark on a worldwide journey in 2017 must be Ed Sheeran. The show’s production company, Major Tom Limited has purchased LoadGuard hoists from LTM- Lift Turn Move to fly the entire lighting, sound and AV system. In total, LTM have supplied 68 1t and 36 2t LoadGuard motors all running at four metres/per min. The motor control system is Kinesys throughout and operated by Steve Bliss from LCR.
The fan shaped mothergrid was designed by Jeremy Lloyd of Wonder Works and is lifted by thirty 2t LoadGuard hoists. Rigged within the mothergrid are 50 1t motors from which fly the lighting trusses and AV screens including four moving lighting pods which drop down on three Liftkets on Kinesys control during the show. Unusually, the 1t motors remain pre-rigged within the mothergrid (1m deep truss from Litec) in transi

The Netherlands - On 5 May 1945 the Netherlands was liberated from the Nazis. Initially the date was marked every five years with a celebration of liberation, but in 1990 5 May was designated an annual national holiday in the Netherlands.
The day is now commemorated by celebrations across the country, including music festivals held in one of the major cities of each of the Netherland’s 12 provinces. In Limburg, the festival is hosted in the city of Roermond and ADJ lighting was used to provide eye candy effects and illumination for one of the principle stages.
A historic city, that was established over 700 years ago, Roermond has a large, and architecturally-impressive, market square which provided the location for the festivities. A number of stages were erected around the square to allow a continuous program of musical performances to run from early afternoon right

UK - “No matter what your experience, there is always something new to learn, especially from the likes of top music producers Cenzo Townshend and Ulrich Wild, or pro musicians Ash Soan and Cody Stewart,” says marketing manager Andy Allen, who is spearheading the launch of Audient’s online Tutorial Hub today. Audient has gathered together videos, professional tutorials and user tips onto one easy-access platform to create a free learning centre for all visitors to its website.
To complement the recent unveiling of ARC Creative Hub, which gives new and existing customers access to a comprehensive range of free software, the Tutorial Hub contains general advice on recording, mixing, mastering and technology in different music genres, and helpful tips for users of specific Audient products.
Andy continues, “Anyone can benefit - even if you aren’t (yet) an Audien

UK - This year’s Backup Kartfest was fast, furious, full of thrills and a few spills and, with its Hawaiian luau theme and music from house band Under Cover, which features White Light’s Roger Dean on drums, was tremendously good fun. But the best thing about the adrenaline fuelled day was the incredible £21,000 it raised for the charity, which provides financial assistance to entertainment technology professionals, or their immediate family, who are seriously ill or injured.
Thirty-three industry teams, with six drivers per team, took part in the Le Mans-style three-hour endurance race and the pit stop challenge to become the quickest team to change the tyres on a Formula One car.
“As always, Kartfest was a fantastic, team spirited event, made all the better by everyone joining in the fun and banter whilst racing ultra-competitively for three hours in the sunsh

USA - Community Professional Loudspeakers has announced that Millar Electronics is the recipient of its Rep of the Year Award for 2016. Founded in 1924, Millar Electronics focused heavily on building quality relationships through exceptional customer service, covering the Southeast U.S. states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama. On 1 July, Millar Electronics becomes Mavric Incorporated, coinciding with the retirement of Millar’s principal Herman Civils.
Steve Young, Community’s North America sales director, commented: “Millar was chosen as Community’s Rep of the Year due to their exceptional success in growing repeat business in the region and surpassing their overall annual goal. Their tenacity is apparent in how quickly they react to customer inquiries and opportunities.”
Herman Civils added: “Community develope

UK - Martin Audio is to hold two open days at its High Wycombe HQ in September with a variety of sound demos to show off its new and existing ranges.
Purposely timed to coincide with days when the pro audio community is travelling to and from the PLASA Show in London, Martin Audio will throw open its doors on Tuesday 19 and Wednesday 20 of September, with both morning and afternoon sessions.
Dom Harter, managing director, said, “This is an ideal opportunity for rental companies, system integrators, FOH and monitor engineers to understand more about our latest products including both Wavefront Precision optimised line arrays, our new iKON amplifiers, the high performance XE monitor series as well as the everyday monitoring solution of the LE Series. We’ll also have our existing best-selling ranges available including CDD, CDD-LIVE and BlacklineX.”
Summing up

Europe - Arkaos has announced the release of LEDMaster 1.2 with the support for the new interface Kling-Force LED.
Says the company, “Now is the perfect time to discover an incredibly flexible and efficient way to drive your next LED show! The release of the New LEDMaster 1.2 brings significant support updates for the Kling-Net protocol and also introduces support for the new interface Kling-Force LED, an incredibly efficient and easy way to control LED strips.”
The Kling-Net protocol makes the programming of LED devices much faster and easier. The Kling-Force LED platform is daisy chainable to distribute video over Ethernet via plug and play and no complex setup is required.
(Jim Evans)

China - PR Lighting has announced the release of Phantom, a new hybrid moving head first previewed at this year’s Frankfurt Prolight+Sound Show. An upgraded version of the XR 440 BWS, it contains a full designer’s toolkit in a single unit.
Utilising an Osram Sirius HRI 440W discharge source combined with PR Lighting’s advanced optical system, it delivers a solid beam, with 60° wide wash and an even varied spot.
The fully-featured fixture brings a number of advantages. These include a fixed gobo wheel with18 fixed gobos plus open, a rotating gobo wheel with seven rotating gobos plus open; a prism wheel, with eight-facet prism and 4-facet linear prism as well as an independent 8-facet prism; an independent frost filter; an interchangeable animation wheel, bi-directionally rotating at variable speeds.
Other features include mechanical dimmer (0-100%); double

USA - New for Summer NAMM 2017, sE Electronics has announced the sE8 condenser microphone. The sE8 utilizes a handcrafted gold-sputtered small-diaphragm true condenser capsule manufactured by sE in their own capsule room, with this capsule’s brand new backplate design resulting in a more even, balanced sound and superior transient response as compared to any other small-capsule condenser of comparable price and beyond.
According to sE’s product manager Thomas Stubics, “You can apply any shelving filters or peak EQ without harshness, unpleasant colorations or distorted transients – it just stays natural.” This is accomplished with an extremely short, efficient signal path, without the use of ICs or transformers - and according to Stubics, the sE8 is “one of the quietest SDC microphones available today – and by far the quietest in its class. Sonically, we feel it

USA - No sooner had country superstar Dierks Bentley kicked off his winter What The Hell tour, than he announced he would be extending his road show into the summer in order to reach more fans at outdoor venues. It was a wise move. The Arizona-born and Nashville-based star is currently riding atop the Billboard Hot Tours chart, playing to more than a half million fans this year. Supporting him every step of the way is a Chris Reade-designed lightshow that features 26 Chauvet Professional Nexus 4 x 4 panels supplied by Christie Lites.
Reade is flying 14 of the RGBW panels on diagonally-oriented truss structures that vary from roughly 12’ to 24’ in height. The remaining 12 Nexus units in Reade’s rig are underneath a B stage, located about 200’ from the main stage.
Arranged in a web-like pattern on the overhead truss, the mainstage Nexus panels form a matri

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