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

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UK - Surrey-based AV distribution company Smart-e Limited is celebrating 10 years trading. The company, known for its purple coloured equipment, has designed and manufactured AV equipment for a wide range of industries and uses across the globe since 1999.

The company, which now has a workforce across the UK and an extensive network of distributors worldwide, moved to larger premises last year, despite the economic climate.

Smart-e's equipment transmits signals via inexpensive and easy-to-install Cat 5* cabling, providing robust networks for all types of AV systems with superior transmission quality. Co-founder Jon Lane, says: "We started the business because we saw a gap in the market for using Cat 5* structured cabling for transmitting AV signals. We spent several years e

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The Netherlands - Prolyte reports that Gonher distribuidora has chosen Prolyte to add to the range of brands for the light and sound markets they represent in Mexico.

Gonher will distribute the complete range of Prolyte products, including trussing, staging and Prolyft hoists.

CEO Jorge González Silva comments: "We were looking for a truss brand over a long period, but following our company philosophy, we also wanted to add quality to our portfolio of professional brands. Prolyte not only has an extensive product line, their focus on high quality products combined with excellent support and technical know-how, is exactly what we like to offer our customers.

The Sound Check Expo in Mexico City this week will be the official start of the distributorship. Gonher will show the complete range of Prolyte products and Prolyte engineer Ivo Mulder will present a technical semin

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USA - For 25 years, Faith Church EPC in Rochester Hills, MI, had gone without a building of its own. Based in this attractive Detroit suburb, the church's congregation met at various schools and rented facilities on Sundays and holidays, having to go through the arduous process of transporting and setting up its equipment every week.

The challenges of meeting these constant set-up demands gave Faith EPC administrators an appreciation for equipment that is durable, dependable and easy to work with. So when the church finally fulfilled its long-held dream of constructing its own building in 2008, it wanted a lighting system that was user friendly and reliable, in addition to being performance-driven and priced within its budget.

Based on these criteria, Faith's technical and creative director Tom Moyer put together a lighting ensemble comprised largely of LED fixtures from Elati

Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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UK - Highlite International BV, along with the UK partner Overt Light to Sound Ltd, is taking delivery of the first batch of the new Antari DNG-200 Low Fog Generator - originally launched at PLASA 2008 in London last September.

The DNG-200 Low Fog Generator is a ground fog effect solution from a fully self-compacted unit with wheels and handles to stand against tough transport. "With today's rising demand and awareness for environmental and health concern, the effects produced is virtually indistinguishable from that is created by dry ice," the company says.

Distinctively from other products currently on the market, it creates low fog straight from machine's nozzle - "a far more efficient and convenient" system, without any of the hassles of CO2 installations, say Highlite. It is operator-friendly as there are no external controls on the machine. Simply plu

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UK - Impact Products (Europe) displayed a wide range of LED fixtures from Chauvet at Even Tech Scotland last month. Utilising three-chord AstraLite trussing from Litestructures, for which it is the master stocking distributor in the UK, Impact demonstrated the control and RGB colour-mixing capabilities of the US manufacturer's COLORado 1, 3 and 6 wash and panel lights and the moving head Q-Wash LED, all to great interest.

Adding to the atmosphere were the full Vue series of static and rotating moonflower effects, offering individual RGB or RGBWY colour control as well as blackout and strobe options, whilst the RGB Technostrobe added dimming to the impressive list of functions available from the effects range.

Impact also surprised attendees with the B50 from Lanta, featuring a bright single blue 50mW diode. With manual, automatic, sound activated and 8 Channel DMX control, the

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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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USA - In an effort to effectively insure life safety and maintain the structural integrity of the space, the award-winning San Diego Convention Centre has revised its rigging requirements. Among the new requirements, the policy states that all rigging installations must be done under the supervision of a rigging supervisor who is certified through the Entertainment Technician Certification Programme (ETCP).

"As an early supporter of the Entertainment Technician Certification Programme, we at I.A.T.S.E. Local 122, understand the value of supporting the vision of ETCP to provide a benchmark set to establish the skill levels of technicians within our profession," said Carlos Cota, I.A.T.S.E. 122's business agent. "So, when the San Diego Convention Centre proposed a change in their rigging policy stating that there would be an ETCP certified rigger on every rigging ca

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UK - The £6.5 million British Music Experience (BME) at The O2 in London opens to the public today (9 March). UK-based audio-visual system integrator Sysco is the lead audio and video installation contractor for the new attraction. Sysco worked with Land Design, BME's exhibition designers, and three software designers (Studio Simple, ISO and Clay) to create the rich, interactive environment of BME in a very short timescale.

BME takes over the 22,000sq.ft on the top floor of The O2 bubble, The O2's exhibition space. A permanent, high-tech, interactive music exhibition, it's also among the most technically complex AV installations ever undertaken in the UK visitor attractions sector.

Sysco's team, led by project manager Chris Mothersdale, director of engineering Glyn Hughes and director of technology Graeme Bunyan, specified and installed the projection, audio and computer

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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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USA - Avenged Sevenfold and Buckcherry's co-headlining tour, which kicked off in September last year, has proved so successful that the run received a lengthy extension through the winter of 2009. Nigel Paul and Steve Shaw, FOH engineers for Avenged Sevenfold and Buckcherry respectively, both credit the tour's success not only to both bands' popularity and reputation for killer live performances, but also to the clarity, power, and warmth of the show sound, mixed through the new PRO6 digital mixing console from Midas.

"For me, the Midas name has always been synonymous with the best-sounding, best-designed live mixing consoles in the business," says Paul. "In the analogue realm I have long-considered the XL4 to be peerless, but with the XL8, and now the PRO6 digital audio system, Midas has met and even exceeded the widely respected sonic qualities of their analog f

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UK - Martin Audio has carried out a radical overhaul of its website - www.martin-audio.com - to coincide with publication of the company's new product catalogue.

Marketing consultant Rob Lingfield, the driving force behind the initiative, said: "We worked on the original website five years ago, but due to the fast-moving modern technology, it had become out of date; we needed to move with the times and were very much driven by America, where the use of the internet is probably greater than our own."

The rationale was to make the site - which includes footage from last year's PLASA show - as simple and logical as possible, he continued. "You should be able to get to where you want to go in two or three clicks. We appreciate that news is being streamed onto the world wide web much quicker these days and we need to be at the forefront with accessibility. The compan

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USA - J. R. Clancy will present the Promote Safe Sets session at the USITT Conference and Stage Expo 20 March. The session lays out a plan to keep your rigging systems in good shape by following three simple steps: train, inspect, and maintain. Although the session focuses on rigging, the techniques can be used for all types of safety training.

"As we take on more complex productions, and add new equipment to our theatres, we need to look at how this affects backstage safety," said Tom Young, vice-president of marketing for J. R. Clancy. "With changing technology, regular training on new equipment and safety procedures is essential, maintenance requirements change, and inspections become more important than ever. Our panel discussion will cover how training, inspection, and maintenance fit into every theatre's backstage safety plan."

(Jim Evans)

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Germany - Electro-Voice has launched seven new CPS amplifiers, targeted at the pro audio installation market. The new series comprises four two-channel models based on Class-H design and three multichannel Class-D type amplifiers, all housed in 2 U chassis, with Euroblock type connectors on inputs and outputs.

The two channel models feature switchable Hipass filters and bridgeable output channels.

The multichannel amplifier's direct-drive design allows for switchable output characteristics from Low-Z to Hi-Z for each channel individually, ranging from 2 Ohms load up to 100V line drive. In addition, channels can be bridged pairwise for double output power.

All amplifiers provide module slots for optional RCM-810 modules, that can be retrofitted for remote control and supervision via IRIS-Net.

Additionally, the multichannel models CPS4.5, CPS4.10 and CPS8.5 feature the Varia

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Together Again? - Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are to appear at a charity concert in New York next month. Sir Paul will headline the concert at the Radio City Music Hall on 4 April, while Starr has been named among a string of special guests. The David Lynch Foundation initially said the pair would perform together, but a spokesman for Sir Paul said a collaboration had not been confirmed and a spokeswoman for Starr said he would perform "a few songs on his own". The David Lynch Foundation, set up by the film director, promotes transcendental meditation in schools.

Glasto Update - Glastonbury Festival organisers are planning to mark its 40th anniversary next year by booking 40 bands from the past 40 years to play the 2010 event. "We want to have a band from every year on the Pyramid Stage," said Emily Eavis. "We'll have a lot of the biggest p

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UK - Registration is open for Showlight 09 which takes place from 16-19 May at BBC Scotland's new headquarters in Glasgow. Further details and registration forms are available at the web address below.

Speakers will include Haris Zambarloukos, Mamma Mia! (the movie); Angus Farquhar, The Storr Project; Iain Ruxton, Grand Mosque, Abu Dhabi; Bernie Davis, The Royal Variety Performance; Paul Collison, Beijing Olympics and Roberto Schaeffer, ASC, Quantum of Solace.As well as listening to the speakers, Showlight delegates get the opportunity to talk to them - over coffee, lunch and tea and at the Conference Dinner. The visits programme includes Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, City Halls, the Philips factory at Hamilton, The House for an Art Lover, not one, but two distilleries, and Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama.

Showlight sponsors include Martin Profession

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USA - Dessa Darling, emcee for Minnesota-based hip-hop group Doomtree, performed at the Guthrie Theater's Dowling Studio in Minneapolis in celebration of the release of her new book Spiral Bound, a collection of short fiction and poetry. Twin Cities-based production and rental company Windy Shores Sound provided a compact sound system for the event - the XA from Dynacord.

Sound engineer Maury Jensen comments, "I had heard of other engineers' favourable experiences with Dynacord products," says Jensen, "but I had never used any of them before. When we loaded in the system, I was very impressed by how light the speakers were and how easily they stacked. The system set up fast and I loved being able to run the PA off of one small lightweight amp rack."

He continues: "When I first fired-up the system and played my usual soundcheck CD, the overall so

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UK - XL Video is supplying 180 Spider 40 LED tiles, a Catalyst digital media server and crew for the Kaiser Chiefs current Off With Their Heads tour.

These are an integral digital component of Richard Larkum's lighting and visual design, and take the look and feel of the Kaiser's almost non-stop touring schedule over the last two years to a new and different dimension.

Larkum states: "The band and I were determined that any 'video' elements interfaced seamlessly with the lighting". He also wanted a digital lightsource with its own visual integrity, and definitely not a massive LED surface that dominated the performance space.

XL UK's project manager Jo Beirne says, "It's always fun and exciting working with Richard - his ideas are innovative and varied and he never loses sight of the basic elements of lighting a band onstage well, and for the enjoyment

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UK - Production:av, an audio visual services provider to the events industry based in Gloucestershire, reports an expanding client base achieved through continual investment in new technologies. "We are finding customers are not just looking for the cheapest price", says Peter McCrea, managing director and founder of the company, "but for the technology best suited to meeting their needs whilst providing good value."

Production:av's live event video division is partnering with video directors and production managers to provide video solutions and move the company forward in this sector. The company's inventory of Barco projection and image processing has provided a reliable platform for servicing customers. "Our Barco HD8 and CLM R10 projectors have been instrumental in offering some complex, and bright projections at a competitive price point. These uni

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USA - American DJ has added a new, smaller-size model to its Mega Bar series of LED colour bars. Like the company's original Mega Bar LED, the new Mega Bar 50 RGB is an ultra-bright DMX-compatible indoor RGB mixing bar. But at 1.5ft in length, it's half the size of the original Mega Bar - and less than half the price.

The trimmed-down size makes the Mega Bar 50 RGB suitable for smaller venues and spaces, while the lower price tag puts this LED colour-mixing bar within reach of budget-conscious DJs, bands and clubs.

"After introducing our very successful original Mega Bar LED, we were getting requests from smaller customers for a similar LED colour bar that was scaled to meet their size and budget needs," said Scott Davies, general manager of the American DJ Group of Companies. "Simply put, they didn't need - or in some cases the space couldn't accommodate -- a b

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UK - ETC distributors and dealers gathered at the lighting, controls and dimming manufacturer's London office in February for the Focus 2009 summit. In a series of events at The Playhouse at Gypsy Corner over the course of a week, delegates got to learn about new ETC products, projects and systems.

A major part of the content focussed on ETC's Unison Paradigm and SmartLink product ranges together with the just acquired Selador Series of LED luminaires, which is set to be an important part of the company's offering.

ETC's market manager for Europe, Erik Larsen, reports: "It was good to get to meet so many of our customers throughout the week, and for them to meet one another. The Focus event enabled people to exchange ideas as well as learn more about what ETC has to offer and what's coming up."

(Jim Evans)

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Germany - The design of d&b audiotechnik's new T-Series offers two different loudspeaker technologies in one package. It delivers an impressive performance as d&b's smallest line array and transforms into a stand-alone point source system providing "remarkable economy of scale".

The T10 cabinet is a passive two-way design that houses two 6.5" drivers, a 1.4" exit HF compression driver and can be used either as a compact component in a multiple cabinet line array or, by rotating the horn as a high directivity point source loudspeaker. The HF driver is fitted to a waveguide horn producing vertical line source directivity with a 90° horizontal pattern that is maintained down to approximately 600 Hz.

The T-SUB shares the same width and integrated rigging fittings as the T10 for deployment either flown at the top of a T10 array, in a separate column or it ca

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UK - The cream of acting talent came together last weekend for the 2009 Laurence Olivier Awards. The ceremony, held at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London is presented by The Society of London Theatre to honour the best West End stage productions.

The winner of the Best Lighting Design category was Paule Constable for her design for The Chalk Garden at the Donmar Warehouse; this is the third time she has won the lighting Olivier, with a further four nominations to her credit.

In the other technical categories, awards went to Gareth Fry for his sound design for Black Watch at the Barbican, to Todd Rosenthal for his set design for August: Osage County at the National.

The awards were presented against a backdrop of record West End attendances in 2008, 14 million people, a one per cent rise on the previous year. Chris Patton, divisional sales manager for Stag

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USA - Theatre Projects Consultants (TPC) was approached by the architectural firm of Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates to help with the renovation of the American Wing Courtyard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA). As part of the renovation, they were looking for a better way to access the exhibit lighting for routine maintenance and focusing. The old method was undesirable for the MMA staff and did not work within the design of the renovation.

Approximately 60ft above the exhibit floor, the existing lighting position spanned over 100ft in length and was situated along the edge of a third story gallery. "By applying a little entertainment technology to the museum environment, we provided a well-designed and efficient solution," says Robert Young, associate Theatre Projects Consultants.

Young and Michael Nishball of TPC, through close collaboration, designe

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