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

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France - Richard McHardy has joined Innovision as business development director and becomes part of the Innovision senior management team.

Richard's key responsibility will be to further develop and implement Innovison's new business strategy domestically and internationally.

Andrew Douglass, chief executive, Innovision said: "Richard has had a very successful career to date and worked with some of the best agencies in the industry. I believe he is one of the best and very much at the top of his game. I am just delighted to welcome him to Innovision, where I know he will thrive."

"I am really impressed and excited by the culture and vision at Innovision, which are very much in tune with my own aspirations" said McHardy. "The breadth and quality of work

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UK - 5 Star cases has supplied a flight case solution for the 2009 BBC's Blast on Tour outreach project, which is undertaking a 7 month tour visiting 27 cities around the UK.

Blast on Tour is a programme of workshops and activities supporting the development of creative skills in 13 to 19-year-olds which takes place in and around the BBC Blast Truck and performance marquee 'village' which is established at each new site.

The flightcase project included a selection of standard and custom cases from 5 Star to cover a number of areas in the whole physical Blast On Tour set up, including the first-point-of-contact registration and reception area.

"We needed a special set of cases for this," explains Tony Kavanagh, operations manager for Blast On Tour. "They needed to look good and accommodate all the necessary equipment, tools and mater

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The Netherlands - The recently launched Prolyte Space Roof saw its first use during the Liberation day concerts in Zwolle, the Netherlands.

"Setting up a new roof system with these huge dimensions within four days, without even a trial build, is a daring accomplishment! We would not have taken this risk with any other company than Prolyte," explained the owner of the Prolyte Space roof, Gino Spijkerman of Interstage, shortly before the concert started.

Prolyte engineers Marc Hendriks and Ruud de Deugd were responsible for getting the roof ready for the show. "Ideas and negotiations for this roof started a couple of months back, but coming close to the final building and seeing it all come together, still is a thrill. Even though you are 100% certain of the design and the materials and every detail is calculated through and through, with a roof with these dimensi

PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

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Australia - The Exchange Hotel, built in 1863, has become one of Brisbane's most iconic venues. Located in the centre of the CBD, the building has undergone many changes but none as impressive and extensive as the renovations completed this year. Under the guidance of renowned architects Brand & Slater, the Exchange aims to set the standard for Brisbane establishments. With a multi-million refurbishment, sophisticated ambience, cutting-edge AV equipment and a new and exclusive roof top terrace, the Exchange Hotel is set to revitalize the inner city social scene.

With responsibility for the audio design, JVG Sound Lighting & Visual recommended a Crown driven JBL sound system. "JBL has such a good sound and offers a really competitive price," said Jade Golar, managing director of JVG. "We've been using JBL powered by Crown on quite a few installs. We've also been us

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UK - After two sold-out seasons at the National Theatre, the atmospheric and emotional War Horse, directed by Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris, is now playing at the New London Theatre in the West End.

The award-winning hit show is based on a poignant book by Michael Morpurgo and has reopened to resounding success. The book was inspired by a conversation with a First World War veteran in Morpurgo's home village in Devon, and relates the extraordinary journeys of Joey, a horse sold to the cavalry, and his inconsolable young owner, Albert, who sets outs on a mission to rescue his much-loved animal companion from the trenches and killing fields of war-torn France.

War Horse was designed with the drum revolve stage in the Oliver Theatre at the National in mind; however, when the production moved to the New London Theatre, different stage dimensions and dynamics had to

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ETC Halcyon Silent

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UK - Trantec, the UK wireless microphone manufacturer, has introduced the latest addition to their popular Racked'n'Ready range. Compact, rugged, and extremely user-friendly, the S5.3 Cube has been designed to fill the needs of wireless mic users who prefer not to be overwhelmed with complex arrays of sound equipment, says the company.

This 1/2U system comes ready installed with 4 UHF channels of Trantec S5.3 which can operate up to 12 simultaneous channels within an 11MHz window (854-865MHz). An antenna distribution unit is included, and built-in mains distribution provides power to each receiver and the ADU. For larger events a remote antenna kit is also available.

Both handheld and beltpack transmitters operate for up to 10 hours on a single AA battery, and computer monitoring software means that users benefit from realtime system status. "The S5.3 is already recognise

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UK - Lighting designer Kevin Adams put MA Lighting's grandMA consoles to extensive use at the Al Hirschfeld Theater when Hair reappeared on Broadway.

The production, which the New York Times called "an emotionally rich revival," is innovative from a lighting perspective because the team chose to program the conventional lights, automated lights and LEDs from a single platform, the grandMA console. This enabled the production team to have fewer consoles on site during set up and rehearsals and allowed the programmers to work on any console at any time while always having specific access to their part of the rig.

"We decided to run the whole show off the grandMA for two reasons," says Aaron Sporer, Hair's associate lighting designer. "It was more cost-effective than renting two moving light consoles and a conventional light console. And by

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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 - The surviving members of The Grateful Dead have just completed their first tour in almost five years. The space themed lighting design - featured 108 rectangular PixelArc compact wash luminaires and 21 PixelLine 110 wash battens. The six-piece, which now calls itself simply The Dead - hit the road in April, playing 19 shows across 16 cities across the USA.

Lighting designer Dan English has worked with the band on and off since 1982. Over the decades, English has experienced the evolution of rock and roll lighting and toured with many pioneering fixtures. The Dead are famous for their psychedelic shows and their lighting rigs have continuously boasted the latest technology.

English reports, "The band wanted a space theme. This tour was scheduled for arenas selling 360° - so the entire scenic concept was limited to the overhead lighting rig. The design had to offe

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USA - Work was proceeding normally in the design and construction of the new 550-seat sanctuary for the Vineyard Church in Duluth, Minnesota, when something unexpected occurred. Dan Redman, president of Spinnaker Multimedia Solutions (Malvern, PA), audio-video-lighting (AVL) integrator for the project, reports, "Everything had been moving forward nicely when the builder hit bedrock in the foundation causing a delay in the project. About that time, our rep called to say Allen & Heath had announced the iLive-T at the NAMM show. We looked at the specs, looked at the numbers and realised the digital console we'd been waiting for had finally arrived, and we would be able to have it installed by the Easter launch of the new facility."

The Vineyard Church does a contemporary rock presentation, with two guitars, keyboards, bass and drums, usually with three vocalists. With a l

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UK - The new musical production of Oscar winning Australian movie The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of The Desert at London's Palace Theatre has a grandMA full-size console controlling the moving lighting rig.

The show's lighting design has been created by Nick Schlieper, and the stage adaptation, Priscilla Queen of the Desert - The Musical was initially premiered at the Star Casino in Sydney in late 2006. From there, it toured Australia and New Zealand before coming to London, where it is being produced by Back Row Productions and the Really Useful Group (RUG).

Lighting equipment is being supplied by PRG, and freelance programmer Stuart Porter was asked by RUG to programme the moving and intelligent lighting components on to a grandMA. Porter has a wealth of experience and many West End productions under his belt, however this is the first time he's programmed

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The Netherlands - With more than 20,000 in the audience and not a spare seat in the house, Nick & Simon used its 9 and 10 May Rotterdam performances to cement their status as the hottest act in the Netherlands. The tumultuous reception that followed the pair's performance on the second night seemed to last forever - an indication of the passion the duo inspires. The venue's management reported the applause was the longest any act has ever received in the Ahoy.

The success of the two concerts was due largely to the outstanding sound quality provided by Triple Show Techniek, the same company that recently provided reinforcement to the successful Jan Smit concerts in the same arena. To create the best possible sonic environment the Techniek team employed an extensive and highly sophisticated sound system from Electro-Voice. The concert rig included X-Line and XLC array cabinets, TG

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Italy - Audio system provider Madema SpA deployed a large, multi-array JBL Vertec system for the Primo Maggio festival in Rome on 1 May. The free annual public event commemorates the Italian Labour Day. Held in Rome's Piazza San Giovanni in Laterano, the temporary stage for Primo Maggio is traditionally set up in front of the historic Basilica of St. John Lateran, the first church to be built in Rome, with first construction dating to 313 A.D.

Once each year the historic religious site comes to life as hundreds of thousands of live music fans converge on the plaza. Many arrive early, camping in the square to claim the best seats. This year's event drew a crowd estimated at more than one million spectators, largely due to the special appearance by legendary rock singer Vasco Rossi. In addition to Rossi and his band, performers for 2009 included Edoardo Bennato, Alessandro Mannari

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UK/France - Rosco has announced that it has acquired Paris-based GobosFactory. Joanna Shapley, France development manager at Rosco says: "We believe in investing when times are tough. This is an excellent move on our part, in the right place at the right time. It is a perfect match to enhance synergies and values for both companies."

Rosco and GobosFactory have united their efforts and resources and, combined with its existing market share for custom gobos in France, this acquisition now gives Rosco a solid position in the French gobo-market.

GobosFactory are the French market leaders for custom gobos. Their manufacturing capabilities will now be expanded with Rosco's worldwide production processes. With the high demands of the live events- and television market, Rosco/GobosFactory are well equipped to meet these high-quality demands and significantly reduce delays f

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South Africa - Gearhouse South Africa supplied stage and set design plus all technical production - staging, lighting, audio, video, power - to the 2009 Africa Day Concert staged in Mary Fitzgerald Square, Newtown, downtown Johannesburg. The show's lineup included the Parlotones, Asa from Nigeria, Classix, Yuri de Cuhna from Angola, Awadi from Senegal, Gang Be from Benin, the Soweto Gospel Choir and many more, and was televised live on SABC.

The innovative stage and set design was created by Gearhouse's Tim Dunn. He wanted a distinctive, stylish structure based on mellow curves and clean lines that complemented the surrounding urban environment.

He achieved this using several integrated elements, including a 25m domed roof - essentially the trussing structure from an In2Structures MaxiDome - with clear skins. The downstage elements were flown from the trussing superstructure o

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USA - For over 40 years, the Daytona Beach International Festival (DBIF) has served as the official US home to the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). This year's LSO Pops Concert, A Celebration of Speed, featured a fast-paced multimedia musical programme set to a 90-minute high-def film, and paid tribute to Daytona as the Birthplace of Speed and to Bill France, Jr., NASCAR's late visionary.

Syntonic Design Group, contracted for the audio production portion of the concert, provided a DiGiCo D5 for FOH. Syntonic's staff engineer, Donnie Smith, chose the D5 based on his previous experience using it on other symphonic events, and the console's ability to handle the large input requirements and dynamic musical range. "The features of the D5, including compression, EQ, effects, made the workload really easy to manage," he said. "Everything is right there sho

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UK - Nick Edwards, formerly of PRG Europe, has taken up a new post as project manager at Panalux, where he will be working in the Broadcast and Events Division, alongside Ed Pagett and Simon Roose.

Edwards began as a service technician for installation company Design Intervention in 2000. In 2002 he joined VLPS (PRG Lighting) at Greenford and went on to serve as a senior Vari-Lite technician working on site across the UK, Europe and the Middle East. His experience has included theatre, corporate events, television and concert touring, with highlights including the MTV Europe Awards, The Brits, The Baftas, Live Earth, The Royal Variety Performance and most recently the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest in Moscow.

At Panalux, Edwards will be project managing a wide range of shows for the Broadcast & Event Division's growing portfolio of clients including studio-based and outside broa

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Live in Birmingham - Just over 12 months ago, Academy Music Group (AMG), whose shareholders include Live Nation, SJM Concerts and Metropolis Music, announced its acquisition of the former Dome nightclub on Bristol Street, Birmingham, for development of its new venue, O2 Academy Birmingham, due to open in September 2009. AMG is currently undertaking a £5m refurbishment programme of the 45,000sq.ft purpose-built 1970s nightspot.

A multi-room operation, O2 Academy Birmingham will have an overall building capacity of 3,859. The three venues can operate independently as well as simultaneously and will feature "state of the art in-house production". The main auditorium has a capacity of 3,009 and artists already confirmed to play this autumn include Bloc Party, The Maccabees and Dizzee Rascal.

Commenting on progress to date, AMG operations director Richard Maides say

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Europe/ - In support of the 20th anniversary reissue of his debut album Let Love Rule, Lenny Kravitz is touring Europe with DiGiCo SD7s, provided by Sound Image, at the monitor and front of house positions.

Kravitz is touring with a seven-piece band and has a large monitor rig, so the SD7's high channel count on both in and outputs has proved very important. Monitor engineer Kevin Glendinning comments: "We have pretty much everything - lots of side fills, lots of wedges, lots of in-ears - so it's nice to have a large amount of inputs and outputs. I'm constantly making up new channels that are pertinent to just ears, just side fills or just wedges.

"I have four channels set aside just for Lenny's vocal - one has extreme compression measures that he insists on hearing in his ears; another very flat and unaltered that feeds effects; one that is sent to band's and

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Spain/Hong Kong - D.A.S. Audio has opened an office in Hong Kong, continuing a recent international expansion in Asia that has seen the company open a subsidiary in Singapore. D.A.S opened this new operation to support its growing customer base in the region, which includes a direct presence in China. Eduardo Lopez, D.A.S.' regional manager, will operate the new office from which he also plans to consolidate D.A.S. products in Hong Kong and Macau.

By taking advantage of the location of the Singapore subsidiary, says the company, D.A.S Audio in Hong Kong can fulfil orders immediately not only for Hong Kong and Macau but also for China, offering all the guarantees of factory direct contact along with customer service for technical issues under the direction of Ron Koh, technical support representative in Singapore.

The opening of the D.A.S. Hong Kong office coincides with the ce

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UK - Following their successful supply of sound to Denver based piano rock band The Fray's 2007 tour, Adlib Audio was again asked to provide FOH control and a stage system for the band's recent UK and European tour, plus a lighting specials package from Adlib Lighting.

The Fray's FOH engineer Mark Maher specified a DigiDesign Profile console for his mix, to which he added a pair of Empirical Labs EL8-X distressors for the snare drum and acoustic guitar.

Adlib systems engineer Declan Fyans toured a Dolby Lake processing system and wireless tablet remote, which he used to EQ and fine tune the house speaker systems. "It was interesting working with different loudspeaker brands each day, all have their own characteristics and nuances, but generally all the ones we encountered were good quality, and we achieved great results in all the different rooms". The various system

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UK - HSL supplied moving and digital lights plus LED elements to the latest series of 0 ond 1, a Welsh language travel quiz show produced by Boomerang for S4C. The rig was specified by lighting designer Martyn Rourke and the eight shows were recorded in a week at Omni Studios near Cardiff.

Rourke's rig included 30 Robe ColorWash 700E AT and four Vari*Lite VL 3000 Spot moving lights, CK iColor Tiles, ColorWeb LED panels and SoftLED cloths as well as 30 ETC Source Fours, i-Pix BB7s, JTE Pixel PARs, trussing and lighting control - all supplied by HSL.

HSL won the tender to supply the kit, and Rourke comments: "They offered all the kit at the best price - and along with that came the great HSL service as always". The account was handled by HSL's TV specialist, Sean McGlone.

The show was shot on a 360 degree set designed by Sid Scott. The 12 initial contestants w

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