Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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Automated lighting veteran Marcel Fairbairn has launched a new company called Gear-Source. Based in Penbroke Pines, Florida, the new operation will supply clients with professional lighting and control products from a range of manufacturers, including Martin Professional, High End, Coemar, Vari-Lite and ETC. The company will concentrate on offering used, discontinued or demonstration items, and Fairbairn intends to develop the product range in the future by adding audio, video and backline gear to the portfolio. Fairbairn is a familiar face in the industry having worked with Tracoman, High End Systems and Martin Professional.

(Ruth Rossington)

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Lightfactor Sales has supplied technical design and installation company Chris Gunton & Associates Limited (CGA) with lighting equipment for the just-opened new Portsmouth University Students Centre.

This £6.5 million project is the first University new-build of the 21st century, the result of a plan initiated in 1997. It holds up to 2,500 people, and comes complete with several spaces including a 1,200 capacity nightclub - Lux, a Chill-out Bar - CO2, a multi-national venue, a Sports Bar - Water Hole, Coffee shop and other social areas. CGA won a competitive tender, offered by interior designers GMP, for the lighting, sound and AV installation for three areas of the building and the reception. They worked closely with Jason Dunlop, chief executive of UPSU and his team to realise the project.

Once the contract was secured, Chris Gunton turned to Lightfactor to supply the lighting kit

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Apogee Sound International has named Keith Vanderkley as director of North American sales, Eastern Region. Vanderkley assumes responsibility for Apogee's sales efforts east of the Mississippi in the United States, as well as in Ontario and the eastern provinces of Canada.

A former technical coordinator for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Vanderkley brings 30 years experience in live sound and recording to Apogee Sound. In 1996 he launched the audio equipment rep firm Vanderkley & Associates, which later merged with Core Products Inc of Canada, where he began his relationship as a rep for Apogee Sound.

Tim Thornton, director of North American sales, will concentrate on the sales territories in the western half of North America. "Keith's knowledge of products made him a great rep," Thornton comments, "and he'll make an even better national sales director."

PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

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The Stanton Group has announced the purchase of the assets and brand name of Cerwin-Vega Inc. Confirming the company’s successful bid, Stanton president and CEO Gerard Cohen stated: "We are very excited about this opportunity to grow and expand our business portfolio. We feel that the strength and heritage of the Cerwin-Vega brand name will be a strong complement to our existing businesses and create synergies in the future. We also clearly recognize the value of the existing customer base and are committed to maintaining strong business partners going forward. Stanton will stand strong behind the Cerwin-Vega product and brand name."

Recognizing the difficulties Cerwin-Vega had faced this past year - requiring them to solicit protection from creditors - the Stanton Group had become instinctively attracted to owning one of the greatest names in the speaker industry over

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Just under 500sq.m of Barco’s daylight display systems are currently at work at the annual Paris Motor Show in France. After a successful presence at the Geneva International Motor Show in March, where Barco had over 300sq.m of its LED displays used, it now has the largest overall surface of daylight displays by any one supplier at this year’s Paris Motor Show. No less than 21 stands, of some of the world’s leading car manufacturers, will feature Barco daylight display products.

The Barco daylight displays and spectacular multi screen presentations using Barco SLM G8/R8 and ELM R18 found on the Citroen, Lexus and VW booths, will be represented at the show through some of Barco’s European rental partners including ETF (Belgium), CT (UK), Gahrens & Battermann (Germany), VPS (France), Sono (Spain) and ICT (Germany). The vast majority of the 486sq.m to be seen at th

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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. 

For more information visit us at www.etcconnect.com

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In mid-August, Zurich hosted the 10th Streetparade, Europe’s largest techno music event, which was attended by 600,000 people from across the world. The event’s central features were the Lovemobiles, huge trucks equipped with high-power sound systems, and animations, to ‘bombard’ the crowd with techno sounds.

This year’s event featured a total of 29, of which three (24m long and 3.5m high) were 'armed' with systems by Italian manufacturer Outline: 4 Modulo Road High, 4 Modulo Road Bass, 8 Doppia, 4 Bomber, 8 Stackbass, 8 Victor Live, 4 Victor Disco, 4 Topsub, 8 Minisub, 16 Digita, 8 Omnia, 2 Tripla, 6 Flyone and 2 Stage 15 - all powered by digital T series power amps and processed by Genius 6 DSP. A Pro 408 and a Pro 405 console were used by the DJs.

Adrian Fuchs, owner of Skylight Veranstaltungstechnik, the Swiss rental firm working on the project in co

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Automated lighting manufacturer High End Systems is offering Level 1 (beginner) training on the new Wholehog III control system in the coming months, with the company’s Vickie Claiborne as the guest instructor. Hog III classes at High End's Austin, Texas, headquarters are set for 5-6 November and repeated on 7-8 November. For registration, contact Vickie Claiborne at vickie_claiborne@highend.com.

High End's New York office is the scene for further Hog III training sessions running on November 19 and 20. For registration, contact Laurie Bachorek at laurie_bachorek@highend.com.

High End's Los Angeles office opens for Hog III classes on 3-4 December. For registration, contact Mike Hanson at the e-mail address below.

For costs and other details, please contact the listed names or visit the website.

(Ruth Rossington)

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Create new traditions – Cameo P6 - High Output Full-Spectrum Ellipsoidal

Cameo's P6 is a future-proof LED profiler with a powerful 600 W RGBACL engine and 16,000 lumens. It’s an energy-efficient replacement for 2.5 kW halogen profile lights in theatres and venues. With excellent light quality and natural colour rendering, it fits perfectly in theatres, musicals, TV studios, congresses, and live events.

With an LED life of 50,000 hours and low power use, the P6 cuts energy costs and supports the EU’s ‘Green Deal’ goals for climate neutrality by 2050. It also meets updated eco-design rules for lighting.

www.cameolight.com/p6profile

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The Youth Wind Orchestra of Grimma, Germany, was hit hard by the recent catastrophic floods - but Telex/EVI Audio was able to help. Along with countless households and firms, the Youth Wind Orchestra of Grimma was severely affected, but what was particularly cruel in their case was that after spending years saving up for a first class sound system, they had barely had time to unpack it when the waters of the Elbe burst in and destroyed not only their new acquisition (a new Dynacord Cobra system) but virtually all their orchestral instruments as well.

Luckily, help was at hand: the Rudolf Wild Werke of Heidelberg, the Großkelterei Rötha GmbH, the Musikhaus Dassler of Choren and Telex EVI Audio stepped in quickly and put together a rescue package consisting of money and material aid sufficient to reequip the young musicians not only with new instruments but with a new Cobra system as w

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Brähler ICS has completed the planning, supply and installation of conference technology systems for the main boardroom and press briefing room in new premises now occupied by E-ON, a major energy corporation in Dusseldorf. Video and projection were included as part of the overall project. Joinery was provided by Koenig & Co. Being on the 9th floor, the boardroom has a magnificent view over the city, while the building’s architecture imposes a curvature on both the room and the table, which create a visual dynamic as well as having implications for the acoustics.

The CDS-200 microphone management, which is integrated with a 16-channel interpretation system, allows board members to listen to the proceedings, vote, and use their authenticating chip-cards. The standard TM55 microphone was modified to a length of 500mm to allow for even better audio quality. Information conveyed by

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Color Kinetics has announced a new fee-based service program for its customers - Applications Engineering Services. While lighting industry professionals recognize the variety of benefits and design capabilities possible with LED illumination, they may not be familiar with all of the specific installation requirements of this new technology. Color Kinetics’ Applications Engineering Services program gives them the option of having a Color Kinetics expert on site to supervise and assist with proper installation and programming of a Color Kinetics LED illumination system, ensuring a successful start-up of their project. Customers may choose from a variety of options within the Color Kinetics Applications Engineering Services program. The Initial project consultation and on-site survey provides a Color Kinetics Applications Engineer who will consult with project participants (client, a

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Stardraw and ProSoundWeb have announced the launch of 'Stardraw.net from ProSoundWeb'. Stardraw.net is a suite of technologies that allows one to design and document integrated systems through a browser using an on-line library of thousands of industry-specific symbols, and is believed to be the world's first web-based CAD system.

'Stardraw.net from ProSoundWeb' represents the introduction of a web-based application that incorporates tools and data tailored to the professional audio market. Stardraw MD David Snipp explains "Our conventional applications have established the sorts of tools that integrators find easy to use and valuable for system design and documentation. This web-based application has been customized for ProSoundWeb to provide their Stardraw.net subscribers with similar functionality within a ProSoundWeb web page."

Stardraw.net from ProSoundWeb is a web-bas

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The recently-launched Artist Elite series of microphones has quickly established itself as the first choice for some of the biggest names in the music industry. Artist Elite users include Rush, Jewel, Vanessa Carlton, Puddle of Mudd, Third Eye Blind, Def Leppard, Amy Grant, Michael W. Smith, and Cinderella.

Currently on tour with Rush, front-of-house (FOH) engineer Brad Madix, a long-time Audio-Technica user who has worked with Marilyn Manson, Def Leppard, Queensryche, and Bruce Hornsby, commented on Rush’s choice of Artist Elite: "We’re using AE5400s for lead singer Geddy Lee’s vocals and two AE3000s on Neil Peart’s rack and floor toms," stated Madix. "Our monitor engineer and I did a blind listening test and put the AE5400 against all the usual suspects. We turned our backs while one of the sound guys went from one mic to the other, and we both

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Audemat, Aztec Radiomedia and Digigram have announced the merger of Audemat with Aztec Radiomedia, a subsidiary of Digigram, with effect from 31 December, 2002. The merger will result in the formation of a new company within the Digigram group: Audemat-Aztec Solutions.

"This is a logical move in Digigram’s development strategy for the broadcast and public address markets," said Philippe Delacroix, Digigram managing director. "This merger will accelerate growth, especially in the broadcast sector. Audemat-Aztec Solutions will reap benefits from the commercial, technological, and financial assets of all three companies involved."

"We find ourselves today at a turning point in broadcast. With the arrival of digital technology and the development of Intranet/Internet networks, companies need to be reactive. Both Audemat and Aztec Radiomedia rose to this cha

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Introduced by Wybron in 1980, the scrolling colour changer changed the face of the entertainment lighting industry. Wybron's CXI Color Fusion uses just two colour scrolls with graduated frames of cyan, yellow, and magenta to create a colour palette more diverse than any other colour changer.

This summer, Birmingham Royal Ballet added 10 large format Wybron CXIs to its house lighting stock through Wybron's London-based dealer White Light, which had already supplied some 50 standard CXIs. Whilst the ballet company is based predominantly at Birmingham's Hippodrome, it also tours with productions to venues throughout the UK such as the Theatre Royal, Plymouth, the Sunderland Empire and The Lowry, Salford.

With unique, durable and compact packaging, the Wybron CXI starts with single-channel control to mix the most frequently used gel colours, plus built right into the system are 100 pre-s

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Des Fallon and Richard Burford have become directors and shareholders of XL Video UK, underlining their dedication and commitment to the company they've helped build. XL Video UK was formed in March 2000 by Chris Mounsor and Lee Spencer, and has gone on to become a market leader in the field of video production for all types of live events, festivals, concert tours and corporate presentations.

Working in conjunction with newly-opened identical operations in the USA and Germany, the UK operation supplies high impact, state-of-the-art digital video production, playback and display technology to the professional performance, entertainment and presentation industries. Sister companies in Belgium and North America provide LED screen solutions for major projects.

Live acts and events serviced this year by XL Video UK include Kylie Minogue, Travis, the Pop Idol tour, S-Club, Jamiroquai, San

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Star Rigging has been on an adventure to the Isle of Rhum, providing rigging and safety consultancy for ‘Escape from Experiment Island’, a new reality TV show made by the BBC for the Discovery Channel. The show featured selected contestants, in two teams, whose challenge was to traverse across a gorge. The competitor’s had to construct a waterwheel, to drive an alternator, which powered a battery, used to drive their mode of transport across the chasm from ‘assorted components’.

Star Rigging has worked with the BBC on a number of recent programmes when people were working (or acting) at height and safety was as ever, of paramount importance for the BBC for this programme. Star Rigging was contracted to carry out a full risk assessment and oversee safety procedures of the site, sending the experienced Oz Marsh on location throughout the filming, to ensure t

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DPL Production Lighting, Essex-based lighting design and rental house are in fashion this season, having just completed a succession of three different fashion shows for brand event specialists Hotcakes.

The first was in Manchester for Marks & Spencer. The 4-day in-store show took place at the flagship outlet in Manchester's Arndale Centre. Darren Parker designed, supplied and operated the lights which included Martin Mac 250 moving lights and an Avolites Pearl console. The fixtures were located on the floor and used to light the catwalk, the ceiling above it and the set behind.

For Wallis & Evans at The Business Design Centre in Islington, the design featured a larger lighting rig, supplied by DPL and designed by Seb Williams. Lighting fixtures included eight MAC 250s, four MAC 500s, 8 High End Studio Beam PCs, a bunch of generics and a radio DMX control system to circumvent some di

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Ford kicked off the launch of their new StreetKa at the Paris Motor Show with a spectacular pre-press event at Studio 217, Le Forum de La Plaine. The venue is a shed-style TV studio in the suburb of Aubervilliers.

Rigging specialists Summit Steel, working for production managers John Marriott and Bernie Kearns at production company PCI:Live, helped transform the venue into a magical environment for the press party, held for an invited audience of 400 notoriously hard-to-impress individuals! The set of the ‘Blu Oval Club’ was designed by Martin Grant, and included a central reveal of the new vehicle. Summit’s first job, a week ahead of the event, was to install 530 meters of trussing infrastructure into Studio 217’s roof to support other elements of the technical production - sound (from Delta, SD Paul Keating), lighting (by Essential, LD Gary Collins), soft good

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Following a highly successful launch at the recent PLASA show, Hand Held Audio has become the first company in the UK to invest in the new APM Series (Advanced Personal Monitoring) hardwired distributed personal monitoring system from Garwood.

The APM Series is designed to provide a simple and cost-effective solution to a familiar problem for sound engineers and production managers: how to provide distributed monitoring for a large orchestra/band setup (such as with a West End musical or a studio recording session) without the hassle and expense of either a wireless system, battery- or mains-powered headphone monitoring, or open loudspeakers. It also provides a perfect solution to providing large numbers of audio feeds at events such as press conferences.

According to Hand Held's Nick Bruce Smith, the APM Series addresses a very real issue to which they had yet to find a completely s

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With more than 50 stops scheduled in the US, followed by a European leg, Bruce Springsteen recently made his third stop at New York’s Madison Square Garden in support of his new album ‘The Rising’, the first recorded with the E Street Band since 1984. Colorado-based sound reinforcement supplier Audio Analysts has been providing concert sound support on mega tours for over three decades, and made all decisions as to what system would be used for their client of 10 years. "We have a longstanding relationship with our clients and if we say ‘this will work’ they trust us," explains Albert Leccese, VP of engineering and tour sound. "The criteria for any piece of equipment we use - be it amps, speakers, effects or consoles - is reliability, audio quality, and ease of use."

The Rising tour PA consists of three Yamaha PM1D digital mixing syste

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In order to keep pace with a continually increasing sales volume and product range, Vari-Lite Europe has expanded its sales team. The addition of Nick Blackman as regional sales manager will allow Vari-Lite to provide greater customer service to its independent worldwide sales dealers.

Blackman, who spent more than 10 years developing export sales with one of Europe’s leading lighting and lamp suppliers, is responsible for developing and increasing sales and Vari*Lite product awareness in the UK, Eire, France and the Middle East. "It’s wonderful to be working for the most respected name in the automated lighting industry," he commented. "Because Vari-Lite is still relatively new to the sales market, now is a particularly exciting time to join the company and contribute to its growth into new areas."

Nick’s previous experience in the markets for w

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