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

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Italy - A 40,000-strong crowd recently filled the huge square in front of Milan cathedral for a concert staged on the church's steps, featuring the 500-member Italian Gospel Choir, the 12-piece Italian Big Orchestra, guest director US songwriter, producer, composer and recording artist Donald Lawrence and Scots MC Malcolm Charlton (aka Nick the Nightfly), one of Italian FM radio's top personalities, a recording artist on his own right and artistic director of Milan's Blue Note Club.

To ensure the inspired music's intelligibility for the crowd, audio, lighting and stage/support system contractor Cipiesse s.r.l. of Rezzato (Brescia) deployed a setup comprising two main hangs of 12 Outline Butterfly enclosures, flown one on either side of the 50m wide 'set' and 16 Outline Eidos posit

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Brazil - Barco has teamed up with virtual reality company Sensorama to create Brazil's newest amusement attraction - the first of its kind in Latin America - providing 4K ultra-high resolution projectors that deliver breathtaking cinematic content for a simulated underwater journey.

Immersion rides that plunge visitors into a virtually surreal world have largely been the purview of giant theme parks. However, they are now beginning to emerge as standalone entertainment experiences in public venues around the world. Sensorama is a frontrunner in this trend with the development of VIX: a 24-person ride taking passengers on an underwater voyage at the Shopping Praia de Costa in Wila Velha, Brazil, a centre boasting more than 225 world-class shops and attractions.

The simulation experience is designed for families and thrill seekers alike, allowing passengers to travel through an

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Bulgaria - HB-Laser equipped the flowstone cave in Ledenika, Bulgaria, with advanced multimedia technology: video, laser, sound, LED lighting, fog and water screens have been implemented to add additional attraction and explanatory media to the cave. The European Union supported this project with subsidies, and HB-Laser was chosen as project partner for the implementation, together with their local partner Factor in Sofia.

Making a large scale, complex multimedia installation of this scale is very difficult: The high humidity and in some cases direct water spray requires highly protected equipment, which applies for the video technology, lighting equipment, lasers as well as speaker systems.

HB-Laser not only implemented the technical equipment, but was also responsible for the complete multimedia control and wiring of the whole installation. Five main control boxes were insta

City Theatrical - Banner - July 2025

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Italy - Dirty Dancing is a worldwide success that shows no sign of losing its charm. On the contrary, it continues to thrill and entertain new and old generations thanks - among other things - to its faithful theatrical adaptation, which allows you to relive all the excitement and magic of the film in a live show. Since 2004 (the year of its world début) Dirty Dancing - The Classic Story On Stage has recorded months and months of sell-outs in its various international versions.

In conjunction with La Contrada - Teatro Stabile di Trieste, Wizard Productions srl acquired the exclusive performing rights of the original version for Italy from the author of the film herself, Eleanor Bergstein. The American author supported the Italian team during the casting, as she always does to make sure her show has the same characteristics as the original in every part of th

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UK - Situated on the site of the world's first railway station, built in 1830, The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester is a large museum devoted to the development of science, technology and industry, with emphasis on the city's achievements in these fields.

Also based in the north-west, system integrators Pure AV, who had already carried out past work for the client, were again introduced to provide a sound reinforcement in one particularly challenging area within the Power Hall, and turned to a Martin Audio O-Line solution, as they have many times in the past.

They were tasked with providing an audio system in a giant, loud ambient room within the Power Hall used for presentations to the general public. The area shows a locomotive with the side cut away while the presenter explains the workings of a steam engine. The audience is positioned in a viewing area opposite

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UK - It is a common saying that musicians put their heart on stage with every performance. The performance group Tactile and the Sacconi String Quartet recently combined forces to create Heartfelt, an immersive musical experience to the tune of Beethoven's String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132, controlled by Cobalt software on ETC's Gadget and ETCnomad controllers.

Before the show, audience members are given a small wooden 'heart' - each with one performer's name engraved on it - to hold during the performance. And each musician is outfitted with a heart rate monitor that delivers live data to Cobalt. "Our system uses custom Java software to grab the heart rate data over Wi-Fi and send it out as a series of master level commands to ETCnomad using UDP [User Datagram Protocol] strings," explains lighting designer Ziggy Jacobs-Wyburn. "The cues throughout the sho

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Spain Top selling artist of the year, singer-songwriter Pablo Alboran, toured the country recently beneath a cover of Elation Cuepix Panels on what was arguably the biggest tour in Spain this year, his popular Terral tour. The young musician, who has sold over one million albums and topped record sales in Spain for an incredible 60 weeks, has also reigned over the charts in Portugal and is popular across Latin America.

AV rental and production company Fluge Audiovisuales supplied the Cuepix Panels for the Spanish leg of the tour, which kicked off in May and played large arenas and outdoor venues in every major city through October.

"The Cuepix Panels were an important element in the lighting design for this tour," stated Chus Fernandez, who created the lighting design for the show and also served as tour op. "We used them to reinforce different lighting scenes w

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UK - On Thursday, 12 November 2015, at the Annual Music Industries Association Awards Ceremony held in London, JHS & Co Ltd Chairman, John Hornby Skewes, was presented by the NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

John Hornby Skewes & Co. Ltd. has been a member company of the USA trade Association, NAMM, since the 1970's. This honour follows a previous Lifetime Achievement Award made to John Skewes by the British Association, MIA, in 2005.

This year JHS & Co. Ltd. achieved 50 years in business. The company was started in 1965 by John and Madge Skewes, and by hard work, perseverance and business skills, they have built the family owned company into one of the largest independent suppliers of musical merchandise and pro audio equipment in the UK.

(Jim Evans)

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Germany - West London-based lighting and visuals specialist Colour Sound Experiment was asked to supply lighting, LED screen and crew for the Perry's Stage at the first Lollapalooza event in Europe - staged at Templehof Airfield in Berlin, a famous and much loved landmark.

Perry's stage, named after Perry Farrell, Jane's Addiction lead singer who started the Lolla phenomena in 1991, is now synonymous with the best of dance beats and sounds and this year headliners included Fatboy Slim.

Colour Sound's crew of seven was led by Kester McClure. On site, they all worked very closely with Festival Republic production managers Spike Beecham and Kevin Sutherland, and in fact it was their third gig this summer working with this same production team who are "Fantastic, really on the ball all the time and ensure that any technical support - plant, riggers, extra generators, etc. - i

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USA - Janet Jackson embarked on a major world tour at the end of August, hitting the road on the initial North American leg with audio production provided by VER Tour Sound, including a pair of DiGiCo SD7 consoles at front-of-house and monitors. At the end of September, StubHub announced that the early dates, in support of Jackson's new No. 1 album, Unbreakable, placed the tour among the top 10 hottest concerts of the fall season based on sales through the online ticket marketplace.

The non-stop Unbreakable show, which features over 30 songs in just over 90 minutes, generates 109 inputs, including Pro Tools tracks, to the two DiGiCo desks. Even with all those sources, Kyle Hamilton, Jackson's FOH engineer since her previous tour, in 2011, has no need for additional outboard effects. "I've always stayed away from using extra outboard stuff, just because I don't need i

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USA - Kentucky rock band My Morning Jacket's seventh album, The Waterfall has had critics and fans enraptured with its eclecticism and there's never a dull moment with the band's live shows either as lighting designer Marc Janowitz will attest.

The recent US leg of the current Waterfall tour campaign saw him using 26 x Robe BMFL Spots and 10 x Pointes as the primary moving lights on a rig supplied by VER together with other moving lights.

The BMFLs were deployed on three overhead trusses - five upstage, seven on the mid-truss and six on the front truss, with another eight on the floor behind & wrapping around the band - all adding to a dramatic and intense show that has delighted audiences across the US.

The Pointes were also positioned on the floor, sitting on flight cases in a straight line upstage.

Marc has worked for MMJ since 2006 and has a great rapport with t

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UK - PLASA members are invited to attend a joint PLASA/UKTI round-table event taking place on 3 December in London. "The focus will be on trading overseas, the impact on your business and overcoming perceived barriers. Come and find out how UK Trade & Investment can help you, whether you are just starting to think about exporting or want to do more," says PLASA.

The event kicks off with a networking lunch followed by an address by Richard Parry, who has been involved in export promotion for over 20 years in a variety of roles. Parry will inform attendees about UKTI and outline what they are doing currently to help UK businesses. This will be followed by Matt Lloyd of GDS and Chris Murphy of Velta talking about their experiences using UKTI services and the benefits exporting has brought to them.

There will be plenty of time to ask questions, share knowledge and, hopef

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UK - The fourth Lumiere festival closed on Sunday night. First estimates put the number of visitors at around 200,000 attending the festival over four nights. The festival is produced by Artichoke and commissioned by Durham County Council with additional support from Arts Council England and a raft of sponsors.

Once again, the city became a new and temporary community of international artists, local people, arts professionals and visitors, all united by a mutual interest in art and a hunger for a transformative collective experience.

Audiences braved the elements to see 29 extraordinary art installations spread across Durham's city centre, including a whale in the River Wear, a ghostly fog beneath the Cathedral, and 250 locals storming the 50m-high arches of Durham Viaduct, in Asalto Durham, a projected artwork by Spanish artist Daniel Canogar.

On Saturday, Lumiere's organis

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France - Allen & Heath has confirmed Algam as the new exclusive distributor of its products in the French market. Algam is a leading distributor of MI and professional audio, video and lighting products in France and the Benelux.

"Algam is proud to add such a fantastic brand to its catalogue," says Benjamin Garnier, Algam managing director. "This partnership will enhance our portfolio, and open up new possibilities to further strengthen our standing in the French audio market. We are sincerely excited to develop the Allen & Heath brand in France."

To best serve the wide variety of Allen & Heath customers, which ranges from aspiring musicians to audio professionals, the sales operation will be divided between Algam Entreprises, which will manage sales to rental and staging companies and installers, and Audia, which will represent Allen & Heath to MI stores a

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UK - British company Formidable Audio is all set to unleash their MkIII Turbosound Flashlight system to the live arena.

Since previous a/b testing took place at Millennium Studios' A Stage in private, further modification and improvements have been made and the system is now ready to thrill listeners at Troxy, 490 Commercial Road, London on 23 November.

The new "3 wide" fly bar designed and manufactured by Formidable will also get an airing. This will facilitate the ability to fly a narrower horizontal dispersion system whilst still maintaining the ability to provide extended vertical dispersion if required.

The event will take the format of an a/b shootout between the upgraded Flashlight system and an independently supplied and set up line array system.

The emphasis of the event will be to give listeners the opportunity to decide which system they believe delive

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UK - Core's ColourPoint Mk 2 battery powered LED up-lighters were used to great effect by event production company Subfrantic to dramatically illuminate the Imperial War Museum London in Southwark.

The magnificent building - originally built 1812-14 as the Bethlem Hospital - was lit in red for Remembrance Day as it provided a charismatic venue for a high profile charity fundraising event staged by the City Veterans Network (CVN) to raise money for three different military service related charities.

Subfrantic provided full technical production - sound, lighting, video and staging - for the gala dinner event.

Twelve of the 24 ColourPoints were deployed to illuminate the six large Doric columns which are the central feature of the building's portico entrance on Lambeth Road, explains Subfrantic's Marcus Weatherley who designed lighting for the event.

The other 12 were used t

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USA - Everlast Productions, Inc. in Miami, Florida has taken delivery of 12 Clay Paky Stormy fixtures, which were quickly dispatched to the dynamic Fitness-Concert at the 8th Annual Zumba Instructor Convention. .

Everlast Productions provides creative and technical solutions for live event experiences worldwide. The company, which has a complement of Clay Paky Sharpy fixtures, decided to invest in Stormys after seeing them in action at an A.C.T demo. "The quality of the fixture was very high, and the light was phenomenal. We thought they'd be an exciting addition to our inventory," says lighting designer David McCranie.

The annual Zumba convention, at Orlando's Orange County Convention Centre, is the largest gathering of the global Zumba family. This year's Zumba Fitness-Concert was a 90-minute, non-stop show featuring Zumba creator Beto Perez and a dozen artists, in

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France - Tributes are being paid throughout the concert touring community to the victims of the Bataclan terror attacks in Paris on Friday. Among the 89 people killed at the venue were two well-known to members of the touring community: Nathalie Jardin, the 31-year-old lighting and stage manager, and 36-year-old British man Nick Alexander, who was touring with Eagles of Death Metal, selling merchandise.

Immediately following the attacks, Nathalie's father Patrick told French media that although he knew she had been working at the venue, he had been unable to locate her. It later transpired that Nathalie had died of gunshot wounds. "It seems that my daughter is dead," he later told French media.

Nathalie, who was nick-named 'Natalight', had worked at the venue since November 2011. A Facebook page has been set up f

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USA - Apollo Design Technology has announced the appointment of Will Linnemeier as sales director. In this role, Linnemeier will be responsible for sales strategies to drive market expansion, sales effectiveness and optimizing the dealer and customer sales experience. He also will manage Apollo's dealer network and customer relationships.

"Will brings a ton of experience to the Apollo sales team. His leadership, understanding of the dealer relationship and ability to drive the customer to our products will make 2016 a very exciting year." Said Joel Nichols, president of Apollo Design.

Prior to joining Apollo Design Technology, Linnemeier was vice-president of international sales and business development for ABC Industries, Inc. He brings over 25 years of sales experience and an in-depth understanding of how to drive incremental revenue within sales, channel and custo

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Europe - Roland has announced the launch of the V-1HD video switcher, an easy-to-use, compact and portable switcher that can accommodate up to four HDMI audio/video sources with resolutions up to 1080p and features a host of professional compositing effects and creative video switching capabilities.

"The new V-1HD is ideal for supporting both live events and presentations, as well as small broadcast setups for enterprise video users, schools and house-of-worship environments. It is also an amazing creative tool for visual artists or musicians who want to add video switching to their performances, create YouTube videos, mix content for online streaming and more," said Christian Delfino, vice president of sales and marketing for the Roland Professional A/V Division in the USA.

"It's the most affordable four-channel HD video switcher that includes a hardware interf

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Germany - Stage|Set|Scenery made a big impression with its successful launch in 2015 in Berlin. Now, the international trade fair and conference for event technology is due to go into its second round. From 20 to 22 June 2017 Stage|Set|Scenery will once again be gathering everyone who is important for a successful production. They represent planning, architecture, film, event services, stage, lighting, sound, video and media technology, make-up, costume and stage-set design, acoustics, studio, exhibition and museum technology.

Already, the first changes affecting the next event have been decided upon. The show will be moving to Halls 19 to 23 and the Palais am Funkturm on the northern section of the exhibition grounds (ExpoCenter City), thus providing trade visitors with a better overview and ensuring they need only travel short distances. The choice of new venue makes it possib

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