Robe - LEADERBOARD - Feb 2025
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Poland - On 9 August 2015, the noted Polish rock band Skaldowie gave a major concert in the city of Gdów to celebrate their 50th anniversary. The national broadcasting corporation, TVP, organized the event and a live crowd of 15,000 attended the outdoor venue.

For the impressive stage setup, no less than 100 x SixPacks blinders and 50 x P-5 wash lights from SGM were integrated into the light design. Lighting designer, Sebastian Pachciarek, explains that he chose the P-5s due to their many advantages such as powerfulness and viewing angle. He used the SixPacks as wall LEDs, and for this purpose, he particularly emphasizes the ease of combining a large amount of fixtures. He then adds, "The fact that both types of fixtures are IP65-rated was quite important - especially for co

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Italy - Hoare Lea carried out the design of AV systems for the UK Pavilion at the World Expo 2015, which takes place in Milan from 1 May to 31 October 2015. With more than 140 countries represented and the theme of: 'Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life', Milan Expo 2015 is a platform for the exchange of ideas about food, stimulating creativity and promoting innovation for a sustainable future.

Under the title 'Grown in Britain & Northern Ireland', the UK's response is a stand-out Pavilion, designed by award-winning British artist Wolfgang Buttress. Inspired by pollination and by scientific research developed to monitor the health of beehives by physicist and bee expert Dr. Martin Bencsik, the UK Pavilion highlights the crucial role of pollination in our food supply, drawing attention to issues such as food security and biodiversity.

The UK Pavilion has been developed around th

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USA - The legendary Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas recently upgraded several of its lounges and bars including what is now the new Vista Lounge, a unique immersive experience featuring the latest in video technology along with a sophisticated Martin Audio sound system.

SenovvA, an American-based design and management group specialising in the entertainment, special event, architectural-construction and media services industries, was tasked with the design and integration of this one-of-a-kind multimedia project.

Bill Sage, SenovvA Account Executive for the project, explains: "We worked with the Rockwell Architectural Group in New York and Bergman Walls and Associates in Las Vegas. They came up with this immersion concept for the Vista Lounge that makes you feel like you're at the top of a skyscraper looking out of the windows down at panoramic skylines of cities like Dubai,

PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

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Sri Lanka - When TV Derana, Sri Lanka's premier entertainment website channel, presented the seventh season of the talent programme, Little Star, in front of an invited audience at the giant Sugathadasha Indoor Stadium in Colombo, PR Lighting partner, The Lighthouse (Pvt) dressed the stage with a wide choice of the Chinese manufacturer's fixtures.

This included 24 x XS1200 Spot; 6 x XL1200 Spot; 40 x XR 200 Beam; 16 x XR 230; 4 x XR 330 and 40 pieces from the XLED Series. All were suspended from the lighting grid to create a dynamic visual right around the stadium.

According to lighting designer Dinusha (Chanaka) Perera these were ideal for TV with their fast response and quiet operation. Having successfully undergone camera tests for colour temperature etc they met all technical requirements.

While the powerful XS and XL Spot have become established fixtures in inven

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USA - Constructed in 1964, UW-Stout's Johnson Fieldhouse has undergone numerous updates over time the most recent, a new audio system that depends almost exclusively on self-powered Tannoy VQNET loudspeakers for reinforcement of speech and music.

As the home of UW-Stout's men's and women's basketball, gymnastics and volleyball teams, the arena is primarily used for athletics, but it's also the site of the campus' annual commencement ceremonies and required an audio system to provide high intelligibility and even coverage regardless of whether the venue is set up for games, competitions, practice sessions, or commencement.

"The old system was installed roughly 25-years ago," says Lori Anda, Director, Recreation and Sports Complexes at UW-Stout, "but it wasn't efficient for events that weren't athletics. The speaker cluster was above the centre of the court so dur

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Belgium - Back in the glam rock-ness of the 1970s, a small village in the middle of Belgium called Werchter decided to put on a one-day music festival. Over four decades on, Rock Wercher has become one of the largest events in the country's musical calendar. This year, it took a new direction, in terms of mixing console choice, with head of sound Patrick Demoustier making the decision for the house system to go completely digital with DiGiCo.

This was a milestone for the festival and Patrick Demoustier explains the reasoning behind making such a fundamental change. "We had talked a lot about moving Rock Werchter's house system from analogue to digital consoles and how we were going to do it," he says. "We didn't want to take any risks; if it went wrong and the experience was bad, our reputation would be bad too.

"We decided we could only do it using DiGiCo

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UK - Launched in 2004 as an alternative to the established mainstream music festivals, Secret Garden Party is about music, people, places and stories coming together in the most hedonistic, magical, and out-of-this world experience one could ever hope for.

Originally created by Freddie Fellowes on his family's 6000-acre farm in Huntingdon, the festival has grown from a single stage, with a few thousand people, to around 32,000 spread over at least 15 stages.

This eclectic music and arts event surrounds a river and a lake (bearing a different eye popping sculpture each year) - and this year featured for the first time a Martin Audio MLA system on its premier stage (The Great Stage) - courtesy of Capital Sound.

Capital were introduced to the event five years ago to mitigate the site's historic sound problems and worked again alongside environmental sound specialists, CBA. The

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China - Audinate has announced the opening of a new Asia-Pacific headquarters in Hong Kong. The office will provide business development, technical sales and customer support in the greater Asia Pacific region.

The decision to open an Asia-Pacific headquarters was fuelled by the overall growth of the AV industry in Asia and the widespread adoption of Audinate's Dante media networking technology in the region. According to InfoComm, Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing market in the professional AV industry, and that holds true for Audinate as well. Audinate now has 44 Dante licensees in Asia, and 47% of those manufacturers have signed in just the last 12 months.

"This expansion reflects Audinate's success in this important market," states David Myers, COO of Audinate. "The new office will focus on business development and support activities for customers in China

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Denmark - Rock band Volbeat's recent homecoming show broke records as the largest concert ever played in Denmark by a local act. With a Meyer Sound Leo linear large-scale sound reinforcement system, the show was heard by more than 37,000 in the Tusindarsskoven forest of Odense.

"I was blown away by the coverage," reports Mads Mikkelsen, long-time FOH engineer for Volbeat. "It's great to know that fans in the back hear the same thing as I do when mixing the show. That's really what I'm aiming for. The band should translate perfectly to every corner of the audience, and the last seat in the house should enjoy the same feeling that I get when I hear the guitars kick in."

Providing pristine coverage across the 160m deep audience area, the main system arrays comprised 14 Leo-M, two LyonN-M main, and two Lyon-W wide-coverage line array loudspeakers each. Two arra

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USA - On seeing the Robe BMFL in action, Bandit placed a large fixture order. The results have spoken for themselves ever since as designer Seth Jackson took the first batch out on the Barry Manilow Farewell Tour. Alabama Shakes designer Rich Stembridge then jumped in and took a load with him, and soon legendary designer Candace Brightman and Paul Hoffman demanded 50 BMFLs be on the Grateful Dead's Fare Thee Well final concerts in Chicago.

Designer Chris Lisle ordered up a big batch for the new Miranda Lambert tour, and as popular as they are, several dozen were specified for the Firefly Festival in Dover, Delaware. Now, designer Dave Butzler has inserted 50 BMFL's on the current Garth Brooks world tour, a show that was already on the road. Dave saw them and had to have them, but he had to wait as demand outstripped supply.

The BMFL joins the current Bandit stock of other Robe

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UK - In an effort to support the future growth and success of the live events industry, Production Resource Group (PRG) in the UK has announced its participation in the UK Government's Apprenticeship Trailblazer scheme.

The UK Government has committed to delivering three million apprenticeships by 2020, and is giving employers a greater say in designing high quality apprenticeships which meet the needs of their respective industries.

Trailblazer groups create the Standards which become the blueprints for apprenticeships.

PRG has taken the lead on the Standard for the new Live Event Technician apprenticeship, and has been supported by AdLib Solutions, Britannia Row Productions, Entec Sound & Light, Fineline Lighting, Hawthorn, HSL Group, LS Live, Neg Earth Lighting, Nitelites, Skan PA, SSE Audio, XL Video, Wigwam Acoustics, and White Light in creating the Standards for this n

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UK - Since launching in 2010 Rigging Team has gone from strength to strength. To continue to build on this, its new Stevenage office will be fully operational from September 2015.

"Rigging Team has outgrown our current locations and it's now time to gather together under one roof," says operations manager Claire Gilligan, who has the task of coordinating the move. "It's not often companies get the luxury of a blank slate when it comes to organising warehouse space, the Stevenage office and warehouse has come at just the right time for us."

Director Adam Searle comments, "Our new premises will allow us to better serve our clients with increased storage and prep areas as well as dedicated test & inspection facilities. The location has excellent road and rail links giving easy access into London and around the UK."

The new address is: Unit 16 Gunne

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Malaysia - With the International Indian Film Academy Awards (also known as the IIFA Awards) the International Indian Film Academy honours both the artistic and technical excellence of professionals involved in Bollywood. Started in 2000, the ceremony is staged in different countries worldwide every year, with the most recent one being held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Lighting designer, programmer, operator Harold Fernandez used three grandMA2 full-size consoles on this year's show.

Fernandez had many reasons to rely on the grandMA2. "As the industry changes, so do the challenges of lighting and its products. They are both more flexible and complex and an easy way to operate these products is via the grandMA2. One can create so many different viewing options and layout formats with the console. Also the MA 3D visualizer is great and lets you see your design from various vi

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Australia - Craig Boyes' bdesign is a creative event agency and consultancy providing services across multiple disciplines, including event management, lighting design, entertainment, staging design, AV, logistics and technology consultancy. Based out of Melbourne, bdesign recently invested in a powerful, flexible package from High End Systems, including eight Shapeshifter C2 LED fixtures and a Road Hog 4 console to control them.

"I've been a Hog user for years," reported Craig. "The Road Hog 4 ticks all the boxes in terms of what I want out of a desk. I like the layout and the large screen real estate. I prefer everything to be on the one screen, as opposed to a larger desk that'd have screens and controls spread out laterally." Since its purchase, Craig has already had it out on gigs as diverse as contemporary dance shows and the launch of the film Magic

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USA - For the better part of five decades, Nile Rodgers has demonstrated an uncanny ability to weave diverse musical influences together in unexpected ways. Rodgers' versatility and virtuosity were on full display recently at the FOLD Festival, outside New York City, on a star studded stage illuminated by a collection of fixtures from Chauvet Professional.

Rodgers not only performed on stage with Chic, he hosted the two-day festival, bringing together an eclectic mix of friends and collaborators while "mashing up music cultures", as he told the press. The mash featured sets by Pharrell Williams, Beck, Duran Duran, Chaka Kahn, Q-Tip and Keith Urban, among others.

"There was a sense of electricity in the air throughout the festival, and we were happy to be a part of it," said Jason Ayala of ProSho (New York), which provided the lighting rig. "We wanted l

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Italy - Dating back to 1980, when legendary names like BB King, Muddy Waters, Fats Domino and John Lee Hooker were among headliners at the inaugural Pistoia Blues festival in Tuscany, this remains one of the most durable annual events in Europe.

Supported by a Martin Audio PA, the 2015 edition again took place in the beautiful city's Piazza Duomo over the course of nine evenings (between July 1-24) - organised by the Associazione Blues in conjunction with the Comune di Pistoia, (City of Pistoia).

Today, the event has diversified far from its authentic blues roots, and headliners this year included Mumford & Sons, Counting Crows, Hozier, Passenger, The Darkness, The Dream Theater, Santana, Sting and an Italian Blues Night.

Technical infrastructure was provided by the long-standing Electra Service, headed by Roberto Buttarelli, with the main PA system - Martin Audio's flagship

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USA - The 5,000-seat Coussoulis Arena is home to California State University, San Bernardino's Coyotes basketball, volleyball, and other indoor sports teams. The arena also hosts spoken word events, such as lectures and panel discussions, as well as music acts and performing artists of both regional and national status.

Although the Community Sound-based system that went into the arena when it was built in 1995 served it reasonably well, a supposed upgrade of the electronics a decade ago crippled it, rendering speech unintelligible and music boxy and lifeless. Without replacing the original Community loudspeakers, live sound and A/V integration firm Simon Productions (Winnetka, California) revitalized Coussoulis Arena with Ashly Audio processing, amplification, and user control.

"The original loudspeakers went in with a custom-made, proprietary controller that included al

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Italy - Sal Da Vinci is back in the theatre with a new show Se Amore è... Revolution (If Love is... a Revolution) which was staged at the Augusteo theatre in Naples.

The show was written by Da Vinci with Gino Landi and Paolo Caiazzo, and combines music, sketches (entrusted to the actor Lello Radice) and narratives (read by Pasquale Panella).

"I met Sal Da Vinci," lighting designer Francesco Adinolfi reports. "During the amazing success of C'era una volta Scugnizzi (Once upon a time there were street urchins), a musical written by Claudio Mattone (music and lyrics) and Claudio Mattone and Enrico Vaime (script) in 2002. The work was inspired by the 1989 film Scugnizzi (street urchins) directed by Nanni Loy. The musical was staged for the first time in 2002 and, because of its enormous success, restaged during the 2010-2011 winter season."

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UK - De Montfort University, the public research and teaching university situated in the city of Leicester, has undertaken a major upgrade to the PACE (Performing Arts Centre for Excellence) facility on the campus, including a new multi surround speaker array. The project was entrusted to Studio Creations, professional audio suppliers and bespoke recording studio designers founded by directors Mark Russell and Justin Spier.

VDC Trading supplied the Van Damme cabling which was used throughout the facility with all speaker lines running on Van Damme Star Quad multicore cable to minimise interference from the lighting system and power. In addition the Van Damme stage box connected at three points around the room used Van Damme Blue Series multicore and all cable stock used Van Damme Classic Mic Cable.

Justin Spier said, "We specified Van Damme cable, as we always do. Van Dam

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UK - If the UK is to maintain its position as a world leader in creative industries, the learning and development of managers and leaders needs to be drastically improved, according to a research report published by the creative industries' skills body, Creative Skillset, and Ashridge Business School.

The report, Creativity and Constraint, leadership and management in the creative industrie paints a picture of unstructured learning environments, little time for training and development and a fairly widespread lack of understanding of the strategic goals of companies, especially in smaller enterprises and amongst freelance staff less able to access training.

It highlights the need for support on leadership, strategy, innovation, financial and people management - and mentoring is cited as the preferred means of developing management skills.

Dr Amy Armstrong, of Ashridge

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UK - Astera has appointed Stardream as the exclusive distributor of Astera's wireless event lights in the UK. Stardream is based in Blackpool, and will serve England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Stardream has been providing the entertainment industry with innovative products and services since 1977. Astera is delighted to have partnered such a respected and experienced distributor.

Commenting on the partnership, Sam Barnett, owner of Stardream, said, "Nearly 39 years after my father found a product in Europe to have sole distribution rights, we are now delighted to have found the same with Astera LED. The future most definitely looks bright for Stardream." Astera/Stardream will be exhibiting at this year's PLASA show from 4-6 October 2015 (stand C12), and at this year's BPM event from 12-14 September 2015 (stand F091).

Commenting on the partnership, Sebast

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