Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

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Germany - German Music-TV Station,Viva and Sunday newspaper Bild am Sonntag, organized an event in Kiel's Atrium Disco-Club using the Station's Allen & Heath ML5000 console. 3000 guests were entertained with performances from famous German acts including the original German ‘Pop Idol’ bands, No Angels and BroSis and dance club legends, Scooter. Viva acquired the console through Allen & Heath's German distributor, ProAudio Marketing.

(Lee Baldock)

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UK - Lighting designer Dave Smith and former LSD R&D chief Keith Owen have teamed up to form Specialz Limited. The company has been formed primarily to offer a one-off manufacturing service to set and lighting designers who cannot find the item they need ‘off the shelf’.

Dave Smith comments: "For some time I’ve felt that lighting and set designers need a dedicated company that can turn their ideas and concepts into a practical reality. With more rental companies concentrating on their core business, there is a need for a company that has the skills and expertise to design and build specialized items when designers call for innovation." Launched in early March, the company has already completed a refurbishment project for AFM lighting; six customized fittings for Placebo’s latest tour; and a set wiring project for Total Fabrications.

The compan

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UK - Stage engineering and automation specialists Stage Technologies has received The Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the International Trade category. Originally introduced in 1996, The Queens Award for Enterprise is one of the most sought after accolades a UK business can achieve. Thousands of applicants from some of the most successful businesses in every industry apply for the award, but only a few achieve a high enough standard to warrant such an honour.

Mark Ager and John Hastie founded Stage Technologies in 1994 to develop and supply theatres and entertainment venues internationally with computer-controlled systems to move scenery and fly performers. In the nine years since its inception, it has gone from strength to strength, and now has an impressive list of clients based around the globe. Most recently, the company has supplied automation systems for the new Wal

Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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Hong Kong - The tourism industry is one of the major pillars of Hong Kong’s economy, which is why its Government has initiated plans to upgrade the major tourism clusters of Hong Kong.

Sydney-based Laservision Macro-Media was commissioned by the Hong Kong Tourism Commission last August to draw up a harbour lighting report. The report was wide-ranging, and covered the architectural lighting of Hong Kong’s landmark buildings (as well as opportunities for regular lighting shows in Victoria Harbour), the inclusion of a night-time attraction, and an assessment of current lighting pollution. As a result of the report, the Hong Kong Tourism Commission promptly decided to showcase some of the lighting techniques to be employed under Laservision’s plan during the Chinese New Year holidays. China Light and Power agreed to offer sponsorship to ensure the trial became a r

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UK - There is something quite poetic about a conservatoire dedicated to creativity and artistic excellence, being built on the site of a former rubbish dump. This is the case with the recently opened Laban Centre in Deptford Creekside, South East London.

Laban is the world’s largest purpose-built contemporary dance centre, standing amidst a bleak environment of industrial sites as a beacon of creativity for the local community. Comparisons here with the Phoenix rising from the ashes are obvious, but apt.

Designed by Herzog and de Meuron, the prize-winning Swiss architects behind the Tate Modern, the building project cost around £20 million, primarily provided by capital Lottery funding. At the recent launch it was obvious that the building is a highly visible focus for the ongoing social and physical regeneration of Deptford and the surrounding areas.

Rudolf Laban, a

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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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UK - Blue Microphones has entered into an agreement with Focusrite for the distribution of Blue products in the United Kingdom/Ireland beginning 1 April. Focusrite will be replacing Sonic Sales of the UK and will be headed up by Focusrite sales director Chris Gooddie and his management team. According to Blue owner Skipper Wise: "This distribution move is a natural progression of a tremendously successful co-operative marketing partnership that we've forged in the United States with the help of Dino Virella, national sales manager of Focusrite US."

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Italy - Outline’s Doppia and Spectra enclosures were used recently for the Viareggio Carnival, one of the most famous and colourful Italian shows in the world, attended this year by over 100,000 people. Michele Brudaglio’s Sound Service rental firm, based in Pisa, fitted out a float - one of the most impressive - with the Outline sound system, achieving an enormous concentration of power and sound pressure in a small space, say Outline. The system consisted of Doppia and four Spectra enclosures, four Victor Live subwoofers and four Stackbass upper bass units, all powered by Series T digital power amps and controlled by Outline Genius 6 digital processors. Power came from a single power generator on the deck of the float.

(Lee Baldock)

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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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UK - Litestructures is the company behind the Original Astralite truss - for many years the benchmark against which other systems were measured. Ruth Rossington talks with MD Adrian Brooks about past, present and future.

Adrian Brooks is one of the industry nice guys - at least in my book - something I put down to the fact that his feet remain firmly on the ground, despite the obvious success of the Litestructures operation.

Although he’d probably be the last to admit it, he is now sitting at the head of an impressive empire which offers the design, installation, sales and hire of a complete range of trussing, display and staging systems. Operating from a central HQ in Wakefield, with satellite offices in Nottingham and London, and an overseas distribution centre in Emsdetten, Germany, the company employs over 80 people across its four operations (including three install

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Denmark - Martin Architectural has made two new beam angle options available for the Exterior 600 automated colour-changing washlight.

A super-narrow PC-lens option offers 12° field angle optics suitable for long-throw applications. This narrow angle option has recently been used at the Palms hotel in Las Vegas, ensuring an even distribution of light across the 100-metre high hotel. A super-wide prismatic lens is also available, offering 100° field angle optics suitable for short-throw applications. This lens option is available for both the Exterior 600 and the Exterior 600 Compact.

Both lens options are highly effective front glass replacements with efficiency ratings of approximately 48%. Neither the Super-Narrow nor the Super-Wide option offers zoom functionality.

(Ruth Rossington)

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UK - Stagetec has announced the introduction of a Reseller Advantage Programme, aimed at expanding the company’s reseller sales base. Stagetec is the exclusive UK importer and distributor for leading brands such as Compulite and LSC, and the scheme begins with dealers of these ranges.

The scheme will build on the company’s philosophy of after-sales service, and Stagetec will offer access to its reputation in these fields, plus the company’s considerable resources and expertise, as part of a value-added package to its resellers. Benefits of Stagetec’s Reseller Advantage Programme include the utilization of Stagetec’s engineers and programmers for product demonstrations and training, the supply of demo stock when available and use of the 24-hour Technical Support Line. Technical and creative advice and assistance will also be available from Stagetec v

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UK - Students in the third and final year of their acting course at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts recently performed a production of The Tempest at the Academy, under the direction of Debbie Seymour, head of Mountview’s Directing course.

The technical crew were students on the two-year fast-track BA Honours Degree in Technical Theatre, which is validated by Middlesex University. The production brings the action of Shakespeare’s play forward to the 1920s, using the period’s developments in the fields of quantum physics and genetics as the background for Prospero’s grasp of ‘magic’. It was also decided to use moving projection to visually characterize the ‘masque’ aspects of the play.

Mountview strives to give its students access to the latest technology, and this production has taken them to the leading edge of stage projectio

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China - IIR Exhibitions and its joint partners, China Theatrical Equipment Association (CTEA) and China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Beijing Sub-Council (CCPIT) have announced the postponement of CALM Expo 2003, which was due to take place in Beijing from 16-19 May 2003. The decision was made following requests from several exhibitors to postpone the exhibition to a later date in view of the SARS outbreak in China and in response to the new SARS statistics released from China over the weekend.

The organizers told us: "Our attendees’ health and safety is our utmost concern, therefore we have decided to postpone the event to a later date. We are currently looking at another suitable date as many exhibitors have indicated that . . . the exhibition is very important for their business." Details of the new dates will be confirmed in due course.

T

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UK - Lighting manufacturer Ryger Ltd has reported the sudden death of Tony Edwards - a lighting industry stalwart and long-time associate and personal friend of Ryger managing director Phil Smith. Edwards played a significant role in the relaunch of Ryger in 2002. Smith told us Edwards was "a man with a huge and often controversial personality, admired for his commitment to British design and manufacturing. Whilst owner and head of design at Apollo-Spectrum lighting he developed such well known effects as the Equinox and the Doris. Even in semi-retirement following the sale of Apollo-Spectrum Tony continued to design and innovate and was tireless in his desire to see new products through from concept to production.

"It was a great shock to all who knew Tony to learn of his sudden death on Good Friday and our thoughts are with his wife Janet and family at this difficult

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USA - SoundField and Soundelux have come together as the microphone ‘Dream Team’. Surround sound mic manufacturer and distributor, SoundField, have taken on worldwide distribution, excluding the USA, of the critically acclaimed Soundelux range of valve and FET microphones.

Hand-built in Hollywood, with an uncompromising commitment to quality and workmanship, Soundelux have developed a comprehensive range of professional grade microphones. Such models as their ELUX 251, E47, U99 and IFET 7 recreate the sound attributes of the sought after vintage classics.

Pieter Schillebeeckx, SoundField International Sales, stated: "The Soundelux products don’t compete with any of our models. Our own SoundField multi-capsule technology is aimed firmly at the stereo and surround sound market, particularly in Broadcast. Soundelux’s popularity with so many high profi

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UK - Specialist AV company Blitz is supplying sound equipment for a new theatre production Jus' Like That! celebrating the life of comedian Tommy Cooper. It has just opened at The Garrick theatre in London's West End for an open-ended run. As the show contains many of Cooper's original routines, it was essential not only to select the right sound equipment, but also to ensure that it remained unobtrusive and did not overshadow the star of the show.

Mike Walker, sound designer, explained: "Initially we carried out some rehearsals without any vocal reinforcement with the intention of seeing if we could maintain the intimacy of a play. In order for the comedy routines to fully work we found the reinforcement was necessary. We reconfigured the speaker system and added two Sennheiser SK5012 radio mics."

The production has four musical numbers and the music was spec

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USA - Mackie Designs Inc has announced that Syntrillium Software has made support available for Mackie Control in the latest version of their Cool Edit Pro audio editing software. With the release of version 2.1, Cool Edit Pro joins a growing family of leading digital audio workstations to support the Mackie Control including Cakewalk Sonar, Digidesign Pro Tools, Magix Samplitude, MOTU Digital Performer, RML Labs SAWStudio, as well as Steinberg Cubase SX, Cubase SL and Nuendo.

As with all other supporting software, Mackie offers a custom Cool Edit Pro-specific overlay for the Mackie Control's master section, indicating key software control functions for each button. The overlay dramatically reduces the learning curve for experienced Cool Edit Pro users, and helps make the transition from keyboard and mouse to the Mackie Control quick and easy. The Cool Edit Pro overlay currently

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Denmark - The Alien 05 stem mount is a new variant of Martin’s Alien 05 recessed colour changer. Designed as a surface-mounted fixture with a die cast aluminium casing, it is available in two stem lengths - 150mm and 600mm. Like its recessed cousin, the Alien 05 stem mount is suited to background washlighting in retail, restaurants, cafés, bars, and other low ambient light applications.

The mounting base has been designed to be either surface-mounted or concealed behind ceiling tiles and includes an electronic low-voltage transformer so the only additional requirements are line voltage and data signal. Its rotatable, tiltable head is easy to aim and can be locked in position. The product’s three components - head, stem and base - are sold as separate items to offer a high degree of flexibility and to reduce stock bindings.

The Alien 05 stem mount performs identica

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UK - The Rosco ImagePro was recently used by Matt Veitch in a production of Ibsen’s play The Lady from the Sea - a play described by one of his contemporaries thus: "There is thrown over the whole play a glamour of romance, mystery, of landscape beauty." These are appealing words for a lighting designer, says Veitch. This particular production was lit for ArtsEd and directed by Christine Kimberley.

When asked why he chose the ImagePro, Veitch said: "The set designer had put together a design which was very austere, abstract and two-dimensional. I figured the lighting task fell into three categories. Firstly to create and reflect the environment of the play within this stage setting, secondly to create locations within this that would have their own identity and thirdly to provide the dramatic support the piece required.

"My choice of ImagePro c

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Brazil - The Jordan Ford Formula 1 racing team’s first Grand Prix win of this season’s F1 championship was aided by driver Giancarlo Fisichella’s custom-designed earpiece created by in-ear monitor pioneers Garwood. Fisichella wears a specially shaped earpiece, developed by Garwood, that maximises the intelligibility of radio instructions given by Jordan Ford’s technicians. Garwood founder Chrys Lindop explains that a unique solution was required to the acoustical problems encountered while racing at 200mph (322kph) or more.

"The communications systems in the cars," he says, "are designed primarily with two factors in mind: intelligibility and reliability. The outcome of a race might hang on a driver hearing an instruction or warning clearly and being able to react instantly to it."

Garwood used its unique version of dual driver techn

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UK - SSE recently supplied Irish PA company Alan Nolan & Sons with a substantial Nexo Geo-S system for Irish star Daniel O’Donnell’s sold-out show at London’s Royal Albert Hall. SSE’s relationship with Alan Nolan (who supply all of Daniel O’Donnell’s shows) goes back many years, and they have always turned to SSE to rent systems for Daniel at the RAH. In the past the systems have been Nexo Alpha. This was the first time that the super-compact Geo-S system has been specified.

According to SSE’s Emma Barwell, Nolans were very impressed by Geo-S when they came over in January for a demo of both Geo-S and the new Geo-T. "While they’d always been very happy with the performance of the Alpha system, it does have quite a rock and roll profile, but Daniel isn’t really a rock and roll act, so when they saw the Geo-S, they were de

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UK - The recently downsized S Club are out on the road again, as part of a major UK arena tour. Working with production director Chris Vaughan of CV Productions, LSD/Fourth Phase is providing the lighting (Pete Barnes is again LD), Britannia Row the sound (including an EAW line array speaker system and flown subs) and XL Video the video equipment. The sets were designed by Hattie Spice and the set construction was a collaboration between Brilliant Stages, Total Fabrications and Hangman Backdrops, whilst the spectacular inflatable for the cave scene was built by Air Artists.

The tour features an integrated show performed by both S Club Juniors and Seniors, with the Juniors’ high-action set kick-starting the evening’s entertainment. The live camera mix is directed by Blue Leach, working with an XL team of five. Leach was also involved in creating most of the Seniors&r

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Astera - Large MPU - June 2025
Sennheiser - MPU - June 2025

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