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PLASA Show 2025 - Banner - June-Aug 2025

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USA - Australian band Jet has hit the road in America to support the group's latest album, Shaka Rock. Manning the controls at front of house is veteran mixer Kyle Chirnside, with Will Burston on the monitor desk. The group is carrying its own front of house console, a Midas PRO6 live audio system supplied by Big Mo Pro in Parsippany, New Jersey.

"I've been using the PRO6 for two years now," says Chirnside. "In fact, we did the first few shows on this tour without it, and I can tell you, it makes a huge difference. With the digital snake system and on-board processing, the PRO6 really makes everything easier, and helps us get the most out the house rigs we encounter."

All shows on the tour are being recorded. For that task, Chirnside opted for the Klark Teknik DN9696 high resolution audio recorder. Designed to integrate seamlessly with Midas digital

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UK - With Friday Night With Jonathon Ross's tenure at the BBC drawing to a close, the microphones used by his resident band 4 Poofs & A Piano are being put up for auction in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital.

Supplied by Terry Tew Sound & Light to the show's broadcast sound supervisor Andy Tapley, the four Shure SM63 mics in pink have been in use since 2001.

"Andy and I discussed what would be the best mic for the 4 Poofs," says Terry Tew, "and I advised him that the SM63s would be the right product to cope with their microphone technique. The fact that they've used the same ones for the last nine years is testament to the fact that we got it right."

Now the four mics are to find four new homes via four separate e-bay auctions, which will start at 9am on Wednesday 14 July following the recording of Ross's last show, which will air on F

Doughty - Banner - from 6 June 2025

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UK - Culminating in a an innovative awards event, the Restaurant & Bar Design Awards' winners, including the best designed restaurant and the best designed bar, were announced and presented with their awards at Victoria House, London on 22 June.

In a bid to increase networking at its awards event the Restaurant & Bar Design Awards commissioned Cinimod Studio to create an effective and visually stimulating solution. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology was used to identify key visitors on the two 'networking pods' during the evening's proceedings.

The tags embedded in shortlisted designers and sponsors' name badges used radio signals to send their identity to antenna receivers. Projections then highlighted guests' key professional characteristics (projects designed, sponsor brands) as they moved around the pods.

Audialsense co

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USA - Jay-Z's Blueprint 3 tour brings together the artist's urban edge, innovative video technology and live camera content creation that keeps screens director Drew Findley and video director Dirk Sanders on top of their game.

The city skyline video wall set, designed by UVA's Matt Clark, offers multiple video surfaces to create compelling imagery throughout the show but the real technical magic is in the complex video system. Sanders and Findley take full advantage of the capabilities afforded them by combining the Control Freak Encore DMX Bridge system with the PRG Mbox EXtreme v3 media server. Production Resource Group (PRG) provided a five-server system for the tour which has played arenas and stadiums around the around the world.

Sanders, who manages all the live camera feeds from backstage, explained the flow of the video system. "I am responsible for the ca

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UK - the Cubehenge installation at this year's Glastonbury festival proved popular, receiving rave reviews from web forums, blogs and even the Guardian newspaper. The full scale re-interpretation of Stonehenge, the famous stone circle, really came to life as the sun set and night closed in. Each cube was internally illuminated and individually controlled to provide a spectacular and rhythmic light show, complementing the acts performing in the Dance Village.

Cubehenge, the brainchild of Cubes Concept, was conceived last autumn with Glastonbury Festival in mind. Constructed using IBCs (1000 litre containers usually employed in the transportation of liquids), each cube was fitted with an LED colour changing unit supplied by UK distributor Batmink Ltd and was individually controlled via DMX using ChamSys MagicQ software and Mini Wing controller.

The 40m diameter installation cons

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UK - Hawthorn recently assisted a major national youth organisation celebrate its100th birthday. Hawthorn's brief was to turn an overflow car park into an arena concert venue for 5,000 young people.

Hawthorn provided all technical and site services for the event including power, lighting, sound, staging and site services. During the event and licensing stages of the project, the team worked closely with the Venue and the Licensing Authority on both health and safety and noise restrictions.

Hawthorn's project manager, Chris Knight, commented, "It's great to be involved in this important Centenary event and see so many people have such a great time."

A total of eight acts performed, combined with a birthday address from the head of the organisation. Between the acts members of the organisation performed on the front of the stage whilst the rear was set for the next a

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Australia - The 'Logies' are the Australian TV industry's annual awards and for many years have been broadcast live in Australia by GTV9, part of the Nine Network of Australia. Named after John Logie Baird, the inventor of television, the event was again held at the Palladium Ballroom, Crown Towers in Melbourne with the 'Who's Who' of Australia's TV personalities in attendance.

This year's lighting design included 33 video screens spread around the room, being controlled by a total of nine Media Servers from both Green Hippo and Pandoras Box. LSC Clarity lighting and multimedia control system was chosen to control this major element of the show.

Having seen Clarity's ability to control Media Servers so easily, LD Rohan Thornton specified a control system based around a VX20 wing, a VX10 wing and Clarity software outputting four universes for control of all Media Servers on the

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Sweden - Wireless Solution Sweden has announced the first batch of winners from their recent competition for fans of their Facebook group page.

"Although the contest was held last month, we've been focusing on our newest product line, so we postponed the drawing," says CEO Niclas Arvidsson, "We plan to hold regular competitions through the group site throughout the year, so people that join the group now still have future opportunities to win. It has turned out to be a fun and efficient way to communicate with our customers and users of W-DMX products so we want to encourage its growth and reward our members."

The winners are: Henrik Vaaben, Scott Peterson, Udo Thimm, Adam Moffat, Adis Spahic, Anne Sarmanne, Ashley Reeves, Audun Bull Hansen, Aziz Adilkhodjaev, Bo Thögersen, Broyden Mills, Charles A Versnel, Craig Beatson, Dalibor Golic, Erlwin de Gans, Gus

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UK - PLASA Events and The Theatres Trust have announced the first Ecovenue feature at this year's PLASA Show focusing on sustainable practices and technologies for theatres and performing arts venues.

PLASA 2010, which runs from the 12-15 September at Earls Court in London, is a major platform for the launch and promotion of innovative new ideas emerging across the event, entertainment and installation industries. The Theatres Trust's Ecovenue feature is a significant new addition to the event, designed to showcase the pioneering environmental efficiency practices being implemented across London venues.

The venues profiled in this uniquely designed 'theatrical' showcase are all participating in the Trust's European-funded Ecovenue project, designed to improve the environmental performance of 48 London theatres. Amongst those featured will be the Albany Theatre (Deptford), the

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The Netherlands - After more than 10 years' experience in their native Belgium, Plopsaland theme park operators Studio 100 have now successfully exported the concept, which includes Plopsa De Panne on the Belgian coast and Plopsa Indoors in Hasselt. Now the first Plopsaland indoor theme park has opened in Holland, with all audio equipment supplied by Ampco Belgium.

The latest construction in the city of Coevorden - situated in the north-east of Holland, and next to CenterParcs - took less than nine months to complete, a considerable achievement since the construction spans more than 10.000sq.m.

The attractions vary from roller coaster rides, turning frogs, carousel, boxcars to a disco featuring the popular girl band K3. Each day the park hosts a different live theatre show and each year they welcome some 400,000 visitors.

Ampco Belgium were again invited to mastermind the so

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USA - NASCAR races have evolved to include events beyond what happens on the track. Racing venues now offer a wide range of entertainment, including top national acts performing before the drivers start their engines.

At the legendary Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama, a new audio system, featuring 101 Community R.5HPT loudspeakers and 50 R.5-SUB subwoofers, has raised the bar.

Chris Ogles of Oxford, AL-based Sound Solutions reports that a demo of the new system in September 2009 left quite an impression. "It made such an impact that the president of the speedway came to us right there on the spot during the demo and asked if they could have the system installed by the next race in November," he says.

Ogles, who has served on Talladega's track AV crew for five years, explains that the bandwidth of yesterday's horn loudspeakers limits their usefulness in

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Europe - Following the successful American, Australian & European legs of Muse's The Resistance tour, a further nine large-scale stadium dates have been added. Brilliant Stages created a completely new stage set for the stadium venues, based on the design concepts of Oli Metcalfe and Es Devin, with technical realisation by Malcolm Birkett, and produced by Chris Vaughan of The Production Office.

The stadium set consists of a 62m long video header, a suspended ceiling grid, a diamond shaped stage flanked by projection screens, drum riser fascias and on- and off-stage rear fascias, a tracking B stage with inset revolving scissor lift and tech bunkers and screamers.

The dominant feature is the video header which appears as a forced perspective ranging from 13.25m high downstage to 4.5m high upstage. Brilliant Stages' CAD team, managed by Kevin Edwards, devised the logistics

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Tour News - Ticket sales for major concert tours across North America have fallen to their lowest point since 2005, a US trade publication has said. During the first half of the year, the top 100 tours made a total of $965.5m (£636.2m), the lowest since 2005 when gross revenue was $730.9m (£481.6m). It marks a 17% decrease from the same period last year.

Pollstar magazine said an average of 6,951 tickets per show were sold, down 9% from the same period in 2009. The information comes just after it was announced that two weeks have been cut from the American Idol tour. Promoters Live Nation said eight shows by the Idol finalists, including winner Lee DeWyze and runner-up Crystal Bowersox, have been dropped. The Jonas Brothers, The Eagles, Christina Aguilera, Rihanna, John Mayer and Limp Bizkit have all pulled summer dates in the US.

Influential Music

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USA - ETC Eos lighting control systems continue to be installed in theatres and venues across the USA.

The San Diego Opera upgraded to an ETC Eos system because the lighting team was looking for a system that could handle the number of scrollers they had acquired over time and could easily control moving lights when a show called for them.

Their control system consists of two Eos desks - one for the tech table and another on the network backstage - as well as an RVI (Remote Video Interface) and an RFR (Radio Focus Remote), allowing different members of their lighting staff to work throughout the theatre to programme shows. Chris Rynne, former resident lighting associate and lighting designer for the San Diego Opera, says, "I love the board. It's cleaner and more intuitive. It's easy to use for people who have theatre and integrated work. Eos makes it quick and easy to pai

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UK - Several of the UK's leading sound rental companies have been quick to add Soundcraft's new Vi1 digital console - the latest, and smallest addition to its Vi family - to their own touring inventories.

Soundcraft has taken the platform to another, more affordable level with the release of the Vi1, which inherits many of the key features of its larger siblings, including Soundcraft FaderGlow, four stereo Lexicon effects engines, BSS Audio graphic EQs on all output busses, and integral dynamics on all channels. The desk is also compatible with Vi2, Vi4 and Vi6 show files.

The Vi1 is Soundcraft's response to market demand for a lower-priced desk with these facilities, but still built around the Vistonics interface.

"It's a small-format desk with big format functionality," summarises Eddie Thomas of ETASound, currently in the midst of a major inventory overhaul. &qu

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UK - Stage Technologies has been recognised in two top business league tables published by the Sunday Times.

In September 2009, London-based Stage Technologies was listed number 52 in the ninth annual Sunday Times Tech Track 100, sponsored by Microsoft. Tech Track 100 ranks Britain's 100 fastest-growing private technology companies.

In a corroborating follow-up this month, the company has been picked out at number 48 in a new listing published on 11 July, International Track 100, which ranks Britain's private companies with the fastest-growing international sales, highlighting important contributions being made overseas.

Stage Technologies has strong regional presences in Las Vegas, where the company has been providing equipment for opera houses and educational performance venues as well as for high-technology, Vegas spectacular shows; Macau, where the c

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Poland - Mazowsze, Poland's national folk song and dance ensemble, has installed an Aviom Pro16 personal mixing system, an important element of the audio setup in its newly constructed theatre located at the European Regional and National Culture Promotion Centre in Karolin. Designed by Konsbud-Audio in Warsaw for the most demanding concerts and musical events, the Spectacle-Education Hall houses the Aviom Pro16 system, which has made difficult sound checks a thing of the past for engineers and Mazowsze musicians.

Mazowsze focuses on historical folk dances well-known throughout Poland. Its internationally famous performances, rich in Polish tradition, explore and define the identity and development of the country's culture. The colourful and creative costumes worn by the dancers complement the upbeat and often fast-paced music that, prior to the installation of the Aviom Pro16,

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Mexico - The end of May saw Grammy nominated R&B artist Brian McKnight headline the 2010 Riviera Maya Jazz Festival in Mexico. It also brought an introduction to the DiGiCo SD8 for McKnight's Front of House engineer Omatali Beckett.

Beckett has been working with Brian McKnight for about three years but, apart from two day's training at DiGiCo's Chessington headquarters, it was the first time he had been 'hands on' with the SD8.

"I previously used other digital consoles because of the way I work," he says. "I listen and don't look at the desk. I prefer to have one screen and all the features accessible on the control surface.

"When I did the sessions at DiGiCo I was immediately impressed by the SD8's great flexibility. I like the fact that any channel - whether it's a group, VCA, matrix, or aux master - can be placed anywhere on the surface. The layering f

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South Africa - Robe CitySkape Xtreme LED fixtures were utilised to illuminate what's been officially declared by the Guinness Book of World Records as the biggest soccer ball of them all.

The 15mhigh ball currently resides at the Emperor's Palace Hotel, Casino Convention & Entertainment Resort, Johannesburg and is a promotion for Kia Motors intended to mark the culmination of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

To draw attention to the inflatable sculpture, Kia asked Hans Rooseboom of Event Pro Technical Services in Johannesburg to light the ball, for which he decided to try out the CitySkape Xtremes to meet their brief of making the installation "funky and spectacular to match the giant ball".

Four CitySkape Xtremes are placed around the ball on 4m vertical truss sections, two of them at 15m away across the other side of the car park access road, and two to the back,

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UK - Britannia Row has chosen XL8s and PRO6s to cover their major outdoor events this summer, including Hard Rock Calling, Wireless and T in the Park.

Two XL8s took pride of place as the FOH flip flop system at Wireless, in London's Hyde Park. A week earlier, an XL8 and a PRO6 had occupied the same position for Hard Rock Calling, while at T in the Park, Britrow deployed three XL8s at FOH on the main stage. The festival systems were all being managed by Britrow system tech Josh Lloyd.

"Having owned and toured Midas XL8s and PRO6s for several years, we felt it was time to profile them front of house at a major festival," says Britannia Row's managing director Bryan Grant. "As Hyde Park has surely become the most Iconic urban festival site on the planet now, we thought it only appropriate for this most iconic of brands,"

"It was very interesting hearing

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Germany - During the evening hours of 30 April, more than 23,000 ravers gathered in Westfalenhalle in Dortmund for Mayday 2010, the largest German indoor-event for electronic music. The event featured over 50 top national and international actswith four large dance floors.

Responsiblity for setting the scene for the event was assigned, for the first time, to EBS Lights of Limburg. Mario Kommorofski, project leader at EBS, shaped the front light as discontinued circular elements and the overhead light as a gigantic propeller, completed by circles and side lines. Light circles composed of large 'energy spools' floated up and down and back and forth above the crowd. The circles were the main lighting element and encompassed more than 300 fixtures.

"My first choice, of course, was to rely on Martin fixtures," Kommorofski commented. "First of all, because we carry a

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Venezuela - Called upon to ensure that Aerosmith's first concert in Venezuela was a success, regional concert sound rental provider, Grupo Zonico deployed JBL VerTec line arrays to support the band in Caracas. Based in Edo Miranda, Venezuela, Grupo Zonico has supplied the nation's top venues and highest-attended concerts with JBL loudspeaker systems since 2006.

To deliver the powerful music of Aerosmith to a massive outdoor audience, Grupo Zonico supplied 30 VerTec VT4889-1 full-size line array elements for the main left/right system, supported by 24 VT4880A Ultra Long Excursion 2x18-inch arrayable subwoofers. Twelve VT4888DP powered mid-size elements with DrivePack technology, developed in cooperation with Crown, were used for out-fill arrays.

In addition, four auxiliary towers each contained three VT4887ADP powered compact line array elements, in coordination with a fifth ar

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UK - The second SFX Live! event, organised by lighting, audio, MI and DJ distributor, CPC, will take place at CPC's head offices in Fulwood, Preston from 11am to 4pm on 25 July.

As a direct result of last year's bumper turnout CPC decided to host the show again this year, maintaining the freeentry to all ethos. Products on display will range from live sound, DJ & musical instruments through to installed AV solutions.

The day will feature 29 suppliers representing over 65 brands all in one venue. In addition there will be free prize draws and discounts available on the day.

(Jim Evans)

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Belgium - No less than 35,681 spectators showed up to see a tennis game between Kim Clijsters and Serena Williams on 8 July in the King Boudouin Stadium in Brussels - A world record. The game was part of the BNP Paribas Best of Belgium show that brought together the best of Belgian tennis players and Belgian music.

To protect the ladies against the ever present threat of rain in Belgium, Wicreations were asked to design a roof 10m above the tennis ground with uninterrupted sight lines from the stands. Towers or columns were out of the question. Therefore the company designed a huge canvas (1500 m2) that consisted of three parts, each weighing more the 500 kg. The canvas was fixed to the roof of the stadium by means of steel cables and held down with contra weights.

(Jim Evans)

  1. PLASA International Rigging Conference delegate numbers rise
  2. Save Our Sound UK meet with Treasury & BIS
  3. Save Our Sound campaign continues
  4. RCF TT+ reinforces Maximal 2010
  5. ARAM lights Lubuskie Province Day concert
  6. Sennheiser helps 2010 World Cup kick off concert
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Astera - Large MPU - June 2025
Sennheiser - MPU - June 2025

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